Argonaute 1 regulates germ cell division and oocyte determination in Drosophila melanogaster

We find that Ago1 protein is be enriched in the oocytes and also distributed in the cytoplasm of follicle cells. Using mitotic clonal analysis, we analyze multiple ago1 mutant alleles. Here, we find that the oocyte do not form in many mutant clones and they only have 8 nurse cells. These results indicate that the level of Ago1 affects the number of cystoblast divisions and oocyte determination.