Translating available food into the number of eggs laid by Drosophila melanogaster.

In Drosophila and other insects egg production is related to the nutrients available. Somehow the nutritional status of the environment is translated into hormonal signs that can be "read" by each individual egg chamber, influencing the decision to either develop into an egg or die. We have shown that BR-C is a control gene during oogenesis and that the differential expression of BR-C isoforms plays a key role in controlling whether the fate of the egg chamber is to develop or undergo apoptosis. Copyright 2004 Genetics Society of America