SRNA profiles of control adults, postdauer adults, larva L3, and dauer stages of C. elegans

ABSTRACT: Early environmental experiences and life histories profoundly influence adult phenotypes via as yet poorly understood mechanisms. We previously showed that wild-type adult C. elegans that transiently passed through the stress-induced dauer larval stage (post-dauers) exhibit different gene expression patterns, genome-wide chromatin structure, and life history traits when compared to adults that bypassed the dauer stage (controls). Here we show that endogenous small inhibitory RNAs (endo-siRNAs) and siRNA pathways may mediate developmental history-dependent phenotypic diversity. Deep sequencing of small RNA libraries show changes in endo-siRNA levels in post-dauer as compared to control animals, and meta analyses indicate that specific endo-siRNA pathways are targets of developmental history-dependent reprogramming. We demonstrate that mutations in specific endo-siRNA pathways affect the expected gene expression and chromatin state changes in post-dauer animals, and also disrupt their increased brood size phenotype. We find that the chromatin state and endo-siRNA distribution in dauers is also distinct and suggest that this remodeling in dauers provides a template for the subsequent establishment of adult post-dauer profiles. Together, our results imply a critical mechanistic role for endo-siRNA pathways in mediating early experience-dependent phenotypic divergence in adults, and suggest that regulation of these pathways contribute to increased fitness via non-genetic mechanisms. We deep-sequenced small RNA libraries from 2 biological replicates each of control and postdauer adults, and one biological each of larval L3 and dauer stages.

ORGANISM(S): Caenorhabditis elegans

SUBMITTER: Nelson Lau 

PROVIDER: E-GEOD-33313 | biostudies-arrayexpress |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress