mRNA-seq analysis of early adult C. elegans following extended L1 arrest with reduced insulin/insulin-like signaling

We characterized the effects of early-life starvation and reduced insulin/insulin-like signaling (IIS) during larval development on adult gene expression using mRNA-seq of whole worms. In our two-factor design, 'starved' worms were cultured without food (E. coli) in L1 arrest for eight days, and 'control' worms were starved overnight for synchronization. Both populations of worms were fed ad libitum with either empty vector (EV; negative control) or daf-2/InsR RNAi food (reduced IIS). RNAi was used rather than a daf-2 mutant so that the results would not be confounded by daf-2 function during L1 arrest, instead disrupting daf-2 only after starvation in fed, developing larvae. Upon reaching adulthood, animals were collected for transcript profiling. 4 conditions (control-EV, control-daf-2 RNAi, starved-EV, and starved-daf-2 RNAi) with 3 biological replicates per condition.