Ecdysone pathway controls NC death–associated events. (A and B) Depth-coded actin distribution in the NCs of stage 11 egg chambers (upper surface in red, lower surface in cyan) in control (A) and EcRB1^DN (B). (C) Schematic mechanism of NC acidification during stages 12–13. Blue dots indicate acidic vesicles. (D′–E″) Stage 13 egg chamber of indicated genotypes with NC nuclei stained with LysoTracker dye. LysoTracker is in green, and DAPI is in Red. Yellow arrowheads mark LysoTracker-positive NC nuclei in control (D′ and D″), while white arrowheads mark the absence of LysoTracker in EcRB1^DN egg chamber (E′ and E″). (F) Quantification of the percentage of LysoTracker-positive NCs in stage 13 egg chambers. n indicates the number of egg chambers analyzed. (G–I″) Stage 13 egg chambers depicting the status of lamin in control (H′ and H″) and EcRB1^DN (I′ and I″). Lamin is in green, and DAPI is in red. A schematic of loss of nuclear integrity in stage 13 egg chambers is shown (G). A white arrowhead indicates loss of lamin in control (H′ and H″), and a yellow arrowhead shows retention of lamin in stage 13 in EcRB1^DN-overexpressing egg chambers (I′ and I″). (J′–K″) TUNEL assay for stage 13 egg chamber depicting fragmented DNA. Depletion of ecdysone signaling downmodulates DNA fragmentation. TUNEL is shown in green, and DAPI is in red. A yellow arrowhead marks TUNEL-positive nuclei (J′ and J″) in control, and the white arrowheads indicate the absence of TUNEL in EcRB1^DN-overexpressing egg chambers (K′ and K″). Error bars represent the SEM, and **** represents the level of significance P < 0.0001.