ArticleNature2017
Maternal age generates phenotypic variation in Caenorhabditis elegans.
Article in Nature, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 84 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
84 citing papers in PubMed.
- Glucose enrichment accelerates C. elegans reproductive aging via non-autonomous DAF-2/insulin-like receptor signaling in somatic tissues.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Quantifying Embryonic Lethality Rate in Caenorhabditis elegans.Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE · 2026Article
- Soma-to-germline miRNA inheritance through yolk promotes stress resilience in progeny.Nature structural & molecular biology · 2026Article
- Vitamin B12 induces memory of predation through vitellogenin provisioning.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Dietary restriction shapes intergenerational ribosome abundance and early growth of Caenorhabditis elegans offspring.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Maternal age modulates progeny social behavior via a small RNA-neuropeptide axis.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Progeny effects of rotenone exposure depend on parental toxicity.Toxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology · 2026Article
- Chemical synchronization using household bleach can affect development, behavior and lifespan inAnimal cells and systems · 2026Article
- A novel, fig-associated microbe promotes reproductive success via variable life history mechanisms inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- The disruption of COPII vesicles activates HSF-1 through SEC-23.Journal of molecular cell biology · 2025Article
- Parental age selection in C. elegans influences progeny stress resistance capacity.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2025Article
- Gene expression variation across genetically identical individuals predicts reproductive traits.eLife · 2025Article
- The regulatory architecture of gene expression variation in Caenorhabditis elegans revealed by multi-strain allele-specific analysis.Genetics · 2025Article
- The regulatory architecture of gene expression variation inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- An intergenerational lipid memory of the social environment inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Beyond genes and environment: mapping biological stochasticity in aging.GeroScience · 2025Review
- RAB-10 cooperates with EHBP-1 to capture vesicular carriers during post-Golgi exocytic trafficking.The Journal of cell biology · 2025Article
- SRS microscopy identifies inhibition of vitellogenesis as a mediator of lifespan extension by caloric restriction inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Non-cell-autonomous regulation of mTORC2 by Hedgehog signaling maintains lipid homeostasis.Cell reports · 2025Article
- Loss of the vitellogenins confers a fitness disadvantage but does not impact brood size inmicroPublication biology · 2025Article
24 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Genetically identical individuals that grow in the same environment often show substantial phenotypic variation within populations of organisms as diverse as bacteria, nematodes, rodents and humans. With some exceptions, the causes are poorly understood. Here we show that isogenic Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes vary in their size at hatching, speed of development, growth rate, starvation resistance, fecundity, and also in the rate of development of their germline relative to that of somatic tissues. We show that the primary cause of this variation is the age of an individual's mother, with the progeny of young mothers exhibiting several phenotypic impairments. We identify age-dependent changes in the maternal provisioning of the lipoprotein complex vitellogenin to embryos as the molecular mechanism that underlies the variation in multiple traits throughout the life of an animal. The production of sub-optimal progeny by young mothers may reflect a trade-off between the competing fitness traits of a short generation time and the survival and fecundity of the progeny.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.