{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"institution":[{"name":"bioRxiv"}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,11]],"date-time":"2026-09-11T14:07:34Z","timestamp":1789135654531,"version":"build-2803163510"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]]},"group-title":"Genomics","reference-count":110,"publisher":"openRxiv","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]],"date-time":"2026-09-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788912000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,8]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>ABSTRACT<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>\n                  Starvation profoundly impacts development, but how different tissues respond to starvation is unclear. We generated a cellular atlas of gene expression in fed and starved\n                  <jats:italic>C. elegans<\/jats:italic>\n                  L1 larvae. We identified 79 cell types in both conditions, and we detected \u223c98% of protein-coding genes, 44% of which were differentially expressed. Starvation affected translation-related genes across the animal, and most \u2018housekeeping\u2019 genes were downregulated. However, tissue-specific patterns of differential expression, transcription factor activity, and GO term enrichments are widespread, suggesting tissue-specific gene regulatory mechanisms and functional consequences. We inferred tissue-specific effects on transcription factor activity, identifying known and novel putative nutrient-dependent transcriptional regulators. Surprisingly, we found extensive transcription in starved primordial germ cells (PGCs), which are known to hyper-compact their chromatin and silence transcription during L1 starvation. We validated PGC transcription of\n                  <jats:italic>aak-1\/AMPK<\/jats:italic>\n                  , and we showed that zygotic\n                  <jats:italic>aak-1\/AMPK<\/jats:italic>\n                  is required for PGC chromatin hyper-compaction, supporting reproductive success upon recovery. This work provides a valuable resource characterizing nutritional control of transcription in an animal, and it reveals that transcription of\n                  <jats:italic>aak-1\/AMPK<\/jats:italic>\n                  is necessary to silence transcription in quiescent PGCs.\n                <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.64898\/2026.09.04.749554","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]],"date-time":"2026-09-09T22:40:16Z","timestamp":1788993616000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["An atlas of the\n                  <i>C. elegans<\/i>\n                  starvation response reveals that transcription is necessary to initiate transcriptional silencing in quiescent primordial germ cells"],"prefix":"10.64898","author":[{"given":"Jingxian","family":"Chen","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sharan","family":"Surya","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rojin","family":"Chitrakar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jenna R.","family":"Valley","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Marcos Francisco","family":"Perez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Biologia Molecular de Barcelona (IBMB), CSIC, Parc Cientific de Barcelona, C. Baldiri Reixac, 4-8, 08028 Barcelona, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2148-5492","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"L. Ryan","family":"Baugh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, 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