Pathway-specific canalization and plasticity of gene expression during C. elegans dauer development

How robustness and plasticity-mechanisms that restrain or promote variation- interact to generate faithful developmental outcomes remains unclear. Caenorhabditis elegans development, where different environmental and genetic stimuli each can induce larvae to switch from continuous growth to a seemingly identical dauer (dormancy) state, provides a tractable model to explore this question. To identify dauer features that differ or are invariant, we compared gene expression of seven dauers generated by different dauer-inducing conditions, globally and within >100 sets of curated covarying genes or "modules" enriched for functional features such as "protein expression," "mitochondria," "germline," etc., through gene co-expression network analyses. We found that most modules varied between dauers. Yet, a subset of modules associated with dormancy-DNA repair, cell cycle, and cell division- were invariant. We propose that the robust expression of genes that regulate a few core traits governing dormancy accommodates variation in others, supporting dauers' adaptability and resilience.