RNAi and chromatin remodeling pathways regulate reproductive phenotypic plasticity in C. elegans

Abstract

Environmental cues experienced early in development play a critical role in modulating adult phenotypes through largely uncharacterized mechanisms. We use C. elegans as a model system to investigate the mechanisms by which early life stress regulates adult behavior and physiology. We have shown previously that wildtype adults that briefly passed through an alternate stress-induced dauer stage (postdauers) exhibit changes in gene expression, genome-wide chromatin state, small RNA populations, and life-history traits compared to adults that bypassed the dauer stage (controls). One consequence of early environmental stress is that postdauer adults have a significantly larger brood size than their control adult counterparts, which is dependent on functional chromatin remodeling and small interfering RNA pathways. Reproduction in C. elegans hermaphrodites is sperm-limited; thus, an increased brood size suggests an increase in sperm production in postdauer development. To test this hypothesis, we are currently ...