Long-Term Live Imaging of Drosophila Pupal Leg Development After Puparium Removal

Over the past decades, significant progress has been made in understanding the mechanisms of cell fate determination. However, the process by which fate-determined cells form three-dimensional organismal shapes remains unclear. Recent advances in confocal microscopy have facilitated efforts to observe cell dynamics during development through live imaging. The Drosophila melanogaster pupa is ideal for live imaging due to its immobility, transparent pupal cuticle, and the availability of fluorescent reporter lines. A primary challenge for imaging is the puparium, the cuticle surrounding the pupa, which obstructs optical imaging. While previous methods involved either partial or complete removal of the puparium, maintaining pupal viability for extended periods after this procedure has remained challenging. Here, a simple method is presented for days-long live imaging of the Drosophila leg during the pupal stage, involving complete puparium removal. The method includes removing the puparium from a pupa adhered to double-sided tape, followed by assembling a small chamber on a glass-bottom dish to enclose the pupa and a drop of water. This setup is straightforward, reliable, and supports extended pupal survival by preventing desiccation. Long-term live imaging of the Drosophila pupa has significantly contributed to capturing how the adult leg undergoes dramatic three-dimensional structural changes over 2-3 days. These changes include the transient formation of an intriguing structure (the Parthenon-like structure) by epithelial cells, rapid tissue narrowing, joint formation, and bristle elongation. This method is applicable to the observation of various tissues and can potentially be combined with other techniques, such as optical gene induction, to advance the understanding of cell dynamics during the final shape formation of tissues in the pupal stage.