Deep sequencing of C. elegans microRNAs under starvation conditions

In nature, animals often face feast or famine conditions. We aimed to identify the miRNAs of Caenorhabditis elegans that changed their expression under starvation conditions in stage L4 larvae. Our results highlight 14 miRNAs that show differential expression in starved versus well-fed larvae. In particular, miRNAs of the miR-35-3p/miR-41-3p family were upregulated 6-20 fold upon starvation. We verified the upregulation of miR-35-3p with qPCR. Additionally, we showed that the expression of gld-1, important in ovogenesis, and a validated target of miR-35-3p, was downregulated when the expression of miR-35-3p was higher. This study represents a starting point for a more comprehensive understanding of the role of miRNAs during starvation in C. elegans. Overall design: Illumina small RNA sequencing of starved and well-fed L4 worms.