AMPK modulates a DEAH box RNA-helicase to attenuate TOR signaling and establish developmental quiescence in Caenorhabditis elegans.

ABSTRACT: Developmental plasticity allows organisms to adapt to environmental stress and improve reproductive fitness. Caenorhabditis elegans adapts to starvation and other stressors by transiting through an alternate developmental stage called dauer, which allows them to remain quiescent for several months, and yet fully retain reproductive fitness when they resume development. The AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is essential for animals to passage through the dauer stage without reproductive consequence. The loss of AMPK leads to germline hyperplasia, dramatically reduced post-dauer fertility, and shortened dauer survival. We identified a putative RNA-binding helicase (HZL-1) that is targeted by AMPK. Disabling HZL-1 function rescues many dauer and post-dauer reproductive defects typical of th

SUBMITTER: Rashid S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12685192 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature