RNA-seq of whole animal tissue and AWA olfactory neurons isolated by FACS from control and post-dauer L4 larval stage C. elegans. RNA-seq of whole animal tissue and AWA olfactory neurons isolated by FACS from control and post-dauer L4 larval stage C. elegans

Developmental experiences play critical roles in shaping adult physiology and behavior. We and others previously showed that adult C. elegans which transiently experienced dauer arrest during development (PD: post-dauer) exhibit distinct gene expression profiles as compared to control adults which bypassed the dauer stage. In particular, the expression patterns of subsets of chemoreceptor genes are markedly altered in PD adults. Whether altered chemoreceptor levels drive plasticity in chemosensory behaviors in PD adults is unknown. Via transcriptional profiling of sorted populations of AWA neurons from control and PD adults, we further show that the expression of a subset of chemoreceptor genes in AWA are differentially regulated in PD animals. Our results suggest that developmental experiences may be encoded at the level of olfactory receptor regulation, and provide an elegant mechanism by which C. elegans is able to precisely modulate its behavioral preferences as a function of its current and past experiences.