95.1% of the ovarioles of 0-1 day old homozygous females do not produce eggs. 3.9% of egg chambers have the normal complement of germ cells and 96.1% of egg chambers contain fewer than 16 germ cells. The oocyte nucleus is often missing and is sometimes mispositioned. The proportion of empty germaria increases with female age. 97.7% of the ovarioles of asp¹/asp^DD4 females do not produce eggs. 44.1% of egg chambers have the normal complement of germ cells and 55.9% of egg chambers contain fewer than 16 germ cells. The oocyte nucleus is sometimes missing and is occasionally mispositioned. Homozygous germaria contain many fewer germ cells than normal at about 24 hours after puparium formation.

Spermatocytes in asp^DD4 homozygotes, asp¹/asp^DD4 trans-heterozygotes and asp^DD4/Df(3R)Hd^γ1 trans-heterozygotes display spindle abnormalities during meiosis I. In late prophase, the majority of spindles are irregular. In metaphase, approximately half of the spindles are irregular. These are defined as spindles exhibiting long and wavy microtubules and/or the absence of distinct bundles of kinetochore microtubules. In late anaphase and late telophase, approximately a third of spindles are irregular, with a proportion of spindles absent. In oocytes of both asp^DD4/asp^DD4 homozygotes and asp¹/asp^DD4 trans-heterozygotes, meiosis I and II progress normally, however the sperm aster does not increase in dimension as in wild-type. In the asp mutant cytoplasm, the microtubules of the sperm aster never extend to the egg cortex. The sperm aster duplicates as in wild-type but is frequently found to detach from the spindle forming around the haploid male pronucleus. During male meiosis, asp^DD4 mutants exhibit long, wavy microtubules, particularly evident at metaphase. The spindle poles are well organised, in discrete structures but are often irregularly positioned. In contrast to the wild-type, in asp^DD4 mutants, anti-centrin fails to recognise the pericentriolar material and only stains the centrioles. In male meiocytes mutant for asp^DD4, there is a greater proportion of cells in all stages of the first meiotic division and a reduction of the proportion in the second division in comparison to wild-type. This observation is consistent with the abnormal spindles leading to a checkpoint response, which in male meiosis is seen as a delay rather than an arrest in the progression through prophase and metaphase. In female meiosis, asp^DD4 protein is found at the poles during metaphase and anaphase. At late anaphase or early telophase of meiosis I, asp^DD4 is localised in a well defined ring of centrally nucleated microtubules. At anaphase II, asp^DD4 is concentrated at the innermost spindle poles.

Transheterozygotes are female sterile, exhibit rough eyes and wing defects (phenotype enhanced at 18^oC), brain defects and meiosis is mostly normal (motile sperm) with some nondisjunction. Homozygotes display rough eyes and bristle defects. Heterozygotes with Df(3R)Hd^γ1 are viable but female sterile.