DAF-16/FoxO and EGL-27/GATA promote developmental growth in response to persistent somatic DNA damage

Genome maintenance defects cause complex disease phenotypes characterized by developmental failure, cancer susceptibility, and premature aging. It remains poorly understood how DNA damage responses function during organismal development and maintain tissue functionality when DNA damage accumulates with aging. Here we show that the FoxO transcription factor DAF-16 is activated in response to DNA damage during development while the DNA damage responsiveness of DAF-16 declines with aging. We find that in contrast to its established role in mediating starvation arrest, DAF-16 alleviates DNA damage-induced developmental arrest and even in the absence of DNA repair promotes developmental growth and enhances somatic tissue functionality. We demonstrate that the GATA transcription factor EGL-27 co-regulates DAF-16 target genes in response to DNA damage and together with DAF-16 promotes developmental growth. We propose that EGL-27/GATA activity specifies DAF-16 mediated DNA damage responses to enable developmental progression and to prolong tissue functioning when DNA damage persists.