Nutrient-responsive and DAF-16/FoxO target H1 histone HIL-1 promotes resistance to starvation and bacterial pathogens in Caenorhabditis elegans

Clicks: 1
ID: 317336
2026
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score — reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal

Ranked #305 of 320 articles by views in current genetics

Most read Least read

Bar heights use a square-root scale. Only the 120 most-read articles are drawn; the journal has 320 in total.

Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet minted

Create a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.

5 SUSD one-off · no wallet required
Abstract
Insulin/IGF-1 signaling (IIS) mediates metabolic and developmental acclimation to stressful conditions including starvation. The transcription factor DAF-16/FoxO actuates many of the physiological effects of reduced IIS, yet the specific contributions of DAF-16 target genes to stress resistance remain poorly understood. We explore the function of C. elegans H1 linker histone HIL-1/H1.0, a DAF-16 target that is upregulated during starvation. The HIL-1 sequence is divergent from the other eight annotated C. elegans H1 variants, and the others are not so highly responsive to nutrient availability and DAF-16 activity, suggesting distinct function. Using knock-in reporters, we find that HIL-1 is broadly expressed in nuclei of L1 and dauer larvae during starvation, but that expression is largely undetectable in fed larvae. Disrupting hil-1 activity through mutation or auxin-inducible degradation led to reduced growth after extended L1 starvation, revealing reduced starvation resistance. RNA-seq of hil-1 mutants suggested that HIL-1 activates genes involved in the innate immune response, and hil-1 mutants display compromised survival upon exposure to Pseudomonas aeruginosa under reduced IIS. Together these results suggest that DAF-16/FoxO activates transcription of hil-1 during starvation to promote resistance to starvation and pathogens. We demonstrate conditional regulation of an H1 histone, and we reveal a novel mechanism for how IIS promotes stress resistance by identifying a histone variant that connects nutrient sensing to immunity.
Reference Key
openalex_W7164751735 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Kinsey Fisher, Rojin Chitrakar, L. Ryan Baugh
Journal current genetics
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/genetics/iyag148
URL
Keywords Keywords not found

Citations

No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org

No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.