analysis of micro- and nano-structures of the corneal surface of drosophila and its mutants by atomic force microscopy and optical diffraction分析果蝇的角膜表面的微-纳米结构及其突变体通过原子力显微镜和光学衍射.pdfVIP

Analysis of Micro- and Nano-Structures of the Corneal Surface of Drosophila and Its Mutants by Atomic Force Microscopy and Optical Diffraction 1 1,2 1 1 Michail Kryuchkov , Vladimir L. Katanaev *, Gennadiy A. Enin , Anton Sergeev , Alexander A. 1 1 Timchenko , Igor N. Serdyuk * 1 Institute of Protein Research, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino, Russian Federation, 2 Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland Abstract Drosophila melanogaster is a model organism instrumental for numerous biological studies. The compound eye of this insect consists of some eight hundred individual ommatidia or facets, ca. 15 mm in cross-section. Each ommatidium contains eighteen cells including four cone cells secreting the lens material (cornea). High-resolution imaging of the cornea of different insects has demonstrated that each lens is covered by the nipple arrays - small outgrowths of ca. 200 nm in diameter. Here we for the first time utilize atomic force microscopy (AFM) to investigate nipple arrays of the Drosophila lens, achieving an unprecedented visualization of the architecture of these nanostructures. We find by Fourier analysis that the nipple arrays of Drosophila are disordered, and that the seemingly ordered appearance is a consequence of dense packing of the nipples. In contrast, Fourier analysis confirms the visibly ordered nature of the eye microstructures - the individual lenses. This is different in the frizzled mutants of Drosophila, where both Fourier analysis and optical imaging detect disorder in lens packing. AFM reveals intercalations of the lens material between individual l