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In Drosophila, all of the clonally related spermatids grow together in an interconnected cyst. After that, they are individualized by the caudal end-directed movement of the F-actin-rich organelles, called "investment cones." F-actin dynamics plays an important role in investment cone assembly and sperm individualization. The cover shows an epifluorescence image of an adult Drosophila testis with its apical end pointing downwards. Investment cone bundles (red, stained with RITC:phalloidin) are distributed along the testis, and the pin-shaped mature nuclear bundles (blue, stained with DAPI) are found at the basal region (center of the spiral). The inset (top right) shows a confocal section of an investment cone bundle with the caudal ends pointing downward. Ghosh-Roy et al. (Mol. Biol. Cell [2005] 16, 3107-3116) showed that the 8 kDa dynein light chain 1 (DLC1), together with the fly homologue of dynamin (shibire), regulates the F-actin assembly at the investment cone. They also showed that DLC1 is essential for maintaining dynamin at the cone and it is a dynein-independent process. This suggesed a novel role of DLC1 in F-actin assembly in vivo. (Image; Anindya Ghosh-Roy and Krishanu Ray, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research)

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