Pathway-Specific Canalization and Plasticity of Gene Expression during C. elegans Dauer Development

Caenorhabditis elegans development, where different environmental or genetic stimuli can each induce larvae to switch from continuous growth to a seemingly identical dauer (dormancy) state, provides a tractable model to explore this question. To identify dauer features that differ or are invariant, we compared gene expression of dauers induced by different dauer-inducing conditions, globally and within >100 sets of curated covarying genes or “modules” enriched for functional features such as 'protein expression', mitochondria', 'germline', etc., through gene co-expression network analyses. Overall design: Comparative gene expression profiling analysis of RNA-seq data for C. elegans dauer following treatment with Pheromone and Starvation