Alternative somatic and germline gene-regulatory strategies during starvation-induced developmental arrest

Abstract

Nutrient availability governs growth and quiescence, and many animals arrest development when starved. Somatic and germline cells have distinct functions and constraints, suggesting different regulatory mechanisms contribute to an integrated starvation response. Using C. elegans L1 arrest as a model, we show that gene expression changes deep into starvation. Surprisingly, relative expression of germline-enriched genes increases for days. We conditionally degraded the large subunit of RNA Polymerase II and found that early but not late somatic transcription is required for survival and that germline transcription does not affect survival. Expression analysis revealed that thousands of genes are continuously transcribed in the soma, though their absolute abundance declines, while the germ line is transcriptionally quiescent with extreme transcript stability. This work reveals alternative somatic and germline gene-regulatory strategies during starvation, with the soma relying on a robust transcriptional response to support immediate survival while the germ line relies on transcriptional quiescence and mRNA stability to maintain future reproductive success.