FIGURE 5.

Vitellogenin underlies the small size and susceptibility to L1 starvation of the progeny of young mothers. Vitellogenin provisioning to embryos increases during the self-fertile reproductive period, possibly due to an increase in biosynthetic capacity in older, larger worms. As a result of their higher embryonic vitellogenin titer, progeny of older mothers are larger at hatching, are more resistant to L1 starvation and reach adulthood sooner, even if the absence of starvation. Conversely the early progeny coming from younger mothers, with the least embryonic vitellogenin, are impaired for these same traits.