Starvation profoundly impacts development, but how different tissues respond to starvation is unclear. We generated a cellular atlas of gene expression in fed and starved C. elegans L1 larvae. We identified 79 cell types in both conditions, and we detected [~]98% of protein-coding genes, 44% of which were differentially expressed. Starvation affected translation-related genes across the animal, and most "housekeeping" genes were downregulated. However, tissue-specific patterns of differential expression, transcription factor activity, and GO term enrichments are widespread, suggesting tissue-specific gene regulatory mechanisms and functional consequences. We inferred tissue-specific effects on transcription factor activity, identifying known and novel putative nutrient-dependent transcriptional regulators. Surprisingly, we found extensive transcription in starved primordial germ cells (PGCs), which are known to hyper-compact their chromatin and silence transcription during L1 starvation. We validated PGC transcription of aak-1/AMPK, and we showed that zygotic aak-1/AMPK is required for PGC chromatin hyper-compaction, supporting reproductive success upon recovery. This work provides a valuable resource characterizing nutritional control of transcription in an animal, and it reveals that transcription of aak-1/AMPK is necessary to silence transcription in quiescent PGCs.
Chen, J., Surya, S., Chitrakar, R., Valley, J. R., Perez, M. F., Baugh, L. R.
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