title: Fitness trade-offs and environmentally induced mutation buffering in isogenic C. elegans.
abstract: Mutations often have consequences that vary across individuals. Here, we show that the stimulation of a stress response can reduce mutation penetrance in Caenorhabditis elegans. Moreover, this induced mutation buffering varies across isogenic individuals because of interindividual differences in stress signaling. This variation has important consequences in wild-type animals, producing some individuals with higher stress resistance but lower reproductive fitness and other individuals with lower stress resistance and higher reproductive fitness. This may be beneficial in an unpredictable environment, acting as a "bet-hedging" strategy to diversify risk. These results illustrate how transient environmental stimuli can induce protection against mutations, how environmental responses can underlie variable mutation buffering, and how a fitness trade-off may make variation in stress signaling advantageous.
authors.affiliation: European Molecular Biology Laboratory-Center for Genomic Regulation (EMBL-CRG) Systems Biology Unit, CRG and Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: M Olivia
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Casanueva
authors.forename: Alejandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Burga
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lehner
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism; D004777:Environment; D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors; D056084:Genetic Fitness; D018841:HSP90 Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D009154:Mutation; D019683:Penetrance; D010641:Phenotype; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013312:Stress, Physiological; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; C510188:DAF-21 protein, C elegans; D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors; D018841:HSP90 Heat-Shock Proteins; D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; C108831:daf-16 protein, C elegans; C474710:heat shock factor-1, C elegans; C108431:hsp-16.2 protein, C elegans