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Maternal age generates phenotypic variation in Caenorhabditis elegans

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  • Marcos Francisco Perez

    (EMBL-CRG Systems Biology Research Unit, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology
    Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF))

  • Mirko Francesconi

    (EMBL-CRG Systems Biology Research Unit, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology
    Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF))

  • Cristina Hidalgo-Carcedo

    (EMBL-CRG Systems Biology Research Unit, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology
    Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF))

  • Ben Lehner

    (EMBL-CRG Systems Biology Research Unit, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology
    Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)
    Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA))

Abstract

Genetically identical individuals that grow in the same environment often show substantial phenotypic variation within populations of organisms as diverse as bacteria1, nematodes2, rodents3 and humans4. With some exceptions5,6,7, the causes are poorly understood. Here we show that isogenic Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes vary in their size at hatching, speed of development, growth rate, starvation resistance, fecundity, and also in the rate of development of their germline relative to that of somatic tissues. We show that the primary cause of this variation is the age of an individual’s mother, with the progeny of young mothers exhibiting several phenotypic impairments. We identify age-dependent changes in the maternal provisioning of the lipoprotein complex vitellogenin to embryos as the molecular mechanism that underlies the variation in multiple traits throughout the life of an animal. The production of sub-optimal progeny by young mothers may reflect a trade-off between the competing fitness traits of a short generation time and the survival and fecundity of the progeny.

Suggested Citation

  • Marcos Francisco Perez & Mirko Francesconi & Cristina Hidalgo-Carcedo & Ben Lehner, 2017. "Maternal age generates phenotypic variation in Caenorhabditis elegans," Nature, Nature, vol. 552(7683), pages 106-109, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:552:y:2017:i:7683:d:10.1038_nature25012
    DOI: 10.1038/nature25012
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    Cited by:

    1. Liankui Zhou & Liu Jiang & Lan Li & Chengchuan Ma & Peixue Xia & Wanqiu Ding & Ying Liu, 2024. "A germline-to-soma signal triggers an age-related decline of mitochondrial stress response," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-19, December.
    2. Klement Stojanovski & Helge Großhans & Benjamin D. Towbin, 2022. "Coupling of growth rate and developmental tempo reduces body size heterogeneity in C. elegans," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, December.

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