Global chromatin changes associated with early developmental experience in Caenorhabditis elegans. Caenorhabditis elegans strain:N2

This study shows that adult C. elegans that transiently passed through the alternate dauer larval stage exhibit distinct gene expression profiles and behaviors, as compared to adult animals that bypassed this stage. Using genome-wide chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments coupled with massively parallel sequencing, we find that genome-wide levels of specific histone tail modifications are markedly altered in post-dauer animals. Mutations in genes implicated in chromatin remodeling abolish, or alter, the observed gene expression changes in post-dauer animals. Modifications to the epigenome as a consequence of early experience may contribute to adult phenotypic plasticity and variation in an isogenic population