C. elegans Program Their Young to Resist Starvatio

Olivia Dias

A study at Duke University took pregnant C. elegant roundworms and divided them into two groups. One group was malnourished, and the other was fed normally. Once the worms had given birth, their offspring were nourished normally. The offspring with well nourished mothers were smaller, while the offspring with poorly nourished mothers were larger and more resistant to starvation and heat. In the next generation of starved worms, less hermaphrodites were born, likely to increase genetic variation in a stressful time.

It's interesting to see that the behavior of these worms doesn't mimic the results of the "Hunger Winter" study, where there were long lasting negative effects for the children of mothers who had been pregnant during the Hunger Winter. The worms bounced back more resistant to starvation, while many generations of Dutch had health problems connected to that specific famine.