hbl-1 does not contribute to the misexpression of an adult cell fate marker in daf-16 mutant dauer larvae.

Abstract

In Caenorhabditis elegans dauer larvae, the FOXO ortholog, daf-16 , opposes the expression of the col-19p::gfp adult cell fate marker in the lateral hypodermis. daf-16 acts in part via lin-41 , a heterochronic gene that promotes larval seam cell fate during non-dauer development. Here, we show that a different heterochronic gene, hbl-1 , does not function downstream of daf-16 to regulate col-19p::gfp expression during dauer. A gain-of-function hbl-1 allele did not suppress ectopic col-19p::gfp expression in daf-16 (0) dauer larvae, and HBL-1 protein was not detectable in control or daf-16 (0) dauer larvae.