Fasting shapes chromatin architecture through an mTOR/RNA Pol I axis

Abstract

Chromatin architecture is a fundamental mediator of genome function. Fasting is a major environmental cue across the animal kingdom, yet how it impacts three-dimensional (3D) genome organization is unknown. Here we show that fasting induces an intestine-specific, reversible and large-scale spatial reorganization of chromatin in Caenorhabditis elegans. This fasting-induced 3D genome reorganization requires inhibition of the nutrient-sensing mTOR pathway, acting through the regulation of RNA Pol I, but not Pol II nor Pol III, and is accompanied by remodelling of the nucleolus. By uncoupling the 3D genome configuration from the animal’s nutritional status, we find that the expression of metabolic and stress-related genes increases when the spatial reorganization of chromatin occurs, showing that the 3D genome might support the transcriptional response in fasted animals. Our work documents a large-scale chromatin reorganization triggered by fasting and reveals that mTOR and RNA Pol I shape genome architecture in response to nutrients. Al-Refaie et al. show that fasting induces spatial reorganization of chromatin and formation of chromatin rings in an mTORC1- and RNA Pol I-dependent manner in the C. elegans intestine.