<i>ztf-16</i> is a novel heterochronic modulator that opposes adult cell fate in dauer and continuous life histories in <i>Caenorhabditis elegans</i>
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Animal development is a complex yet robust process that can withstand lengthy and variable interruptions. In Caenorhabditis elegans , adverse conditions can trigger entry into dauer, a stress-resistant, developmentally arrested diapause stage that occurs midway through larval development. Favorable conditions promote recovery from dauer, and post-dauer larvae develop normally. During larval development, epidermal seam cells are multipotent and divide at each stage. At adulthood, seam cells differentiate and express the adult-specific COL-19 collagen. The progression of cell fates is controlled by a network of genes called the heterochronic pathway, including the LIN-29 transcription factor that directly activates col-19 expression, and the let-7 microRNA that indirectly promotes lin-29 expression. Notably, most known heterochronic genes that oppose adult cell fate act only during continuous development; these genes are dispensable after dauer. We performed a genetic screen for heterochronic genes that act after dauer and identified ztf-16 , encoding a zinc finger transcription factor in the hunchback/Ikaros -like family. We found that ztf-16 is required to prevent precocious expression of the adult cell fate marker col-19p::gfp equally during both life histories, making ztf-16(-) the first precocious heterochronic mutant to be unaffected by dauer. Our data indicate that ztf-16 regulates col-19p::gfp via a novel, lin-29 -independent mechanism. Endogenous ztf-16b::gfp expression is regulated by let-7 and ztf-16 acts genetically downstream of let-7 , but lin-29 is not required for col-19p::gfp expression in ztf-16 mutant larvae or adults. Finally, mRNA-seq experiments identified genes whose expression is regulated by ztf-16 in each life history. Taken together, this work illuminates a novel aspect of the heterochronic pathway relevant to both dauer and non-dauer development.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".