Oviduct development inDrosophila : I. Effects of ovariectomy and genital disc transplantations

The lateral oviducts ofDrosophila virilis were investigated in normal unoperated adult females, after unilateral and bilateral ovariectomy, and following the transplantation of genital discs. Subsequent to unilateral ovariectomy at larval stages of development, mature adult females exhibited reproductive systems with a free lateral oviduct which appeared somewhat shorter and less distended than a lateral oviduct normally attached to an ovary. Histological examination revealed that such free lateral oviducts have undergone considerable growth and differentiation in the absence of direct ovarian attachment, but exhibited a smaller lumen and more highly folded epithelium. They may be distinguished from attached lateral oviducts by conformational differences and by a possibly lesser size of the epithelial cells. Free lateral oviducts observed among bilaterally ovariectomized and sham-ovariectomized specimens were indistinguishable from those obtained after unilateral ovariectomy. The results are at variance with the previously accepted conclusion that oviduct growth inDrosophila is dependent upon inductive influences emanating from the ovary and directing the outgrowth of the oviducts. Differences in the developmental performance of the oviducts as a function of age at the time of ovariectomy were not evident in the study which included larvae ranging from the second instar to late in the third instar. Transplants of larval female genital discs to other larvae revealed a lesser development of the lateral oviducts than that exhibited by a genital disc developingin situ. A range of oviducal growth which lacked any relation to ovarian influences or to other internal organs of the hosts was obtained. In general, decreased amounts of oviducal muscle were found associated with the transplants.