Somatic aging pathways regulate reproductive plasticity in Caenorhabditis elegans

Area of Science:

• Developmental Biology
• Genetics
• Aging Research

Background:

• Early-life stress can induce lasting phenotypic changes in animals.
• In *C. elegans*, starvation triggers a dauer stage, conferring stress resistance and a memory of hardship.
• Post-dauer adults exhibit altered gene expression and reduced fecundity due to this early-life starvation memory.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how endocrine pathways regulate reproductive phenotypes in post-dauer *C. elegans* adults.
• To understand the impact of early-life starvation memory on somatic fat reserves and longevity.
• To explore the transgenerational inheritance of starvation-induced modifications.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing *C. elegans* models with functional and non-functional germlines.
• Analyzing gene expression patterns in post-dauer adults.
• Quantifying fat reallocations and longevity across generations.

Main Results:

• Endocrine pathways regulating somatic aging also control reproductive phenotypes in post-dauer adults.
• Post-dauer adults reallocate fat to progeny, depleting parental stores, and show increased longevity.
• Parental starvation memory-induced fat store modification is inherited by the F1 generation.

Conclusions:

• Parental starvation memory in *C. elegans* leads to adaptive reproductive strategies and extended lifespan.
• Fat reallocations and longevity changes are heritable traits influenced by early-life stress.
• Germline nuclear RNAi pathway likely mediates crosstalk between somatic and reproductive tissues, transmitting starvation memory.