Control of Caenorhabditis elegans germ-line stem-cell cycling speed meets requirements of design to minimize mutation accumulation

BACKGROUND: Stem cells are thought to play a critical role in minimizing the accumulation of mutations, but it is not clear which strategies they follow to fulfill that performance objective. Slow cycling of stem cells provides a simple strategy that can minimize cell pedigree depth and thereby minimize the accumulation of replication-dependent mutations. Although the power of this strategy was recognized early on, a quantitative assessment of whether and how it is employed by biological systems is missing. RESULTS: Here we address this problem using a simple self-renewing organ – the C. elegans gonad – whose overall organization is shared with many self-renewing organs. Computational simulations of mutation accumulation characterize a tradeoff between fast development and low mutation accumulation, and show that slow-cycling stem cells allow for an advantageous compromise to be reached. This compromise is such that worm germ-line stem cells should cycle more slowly than their differentiating counterparts, but only by a modest amount. Experimental measurements of cell cycle lengths derived using a new, quantitative technique are consistent with these predictions. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings shed light both on design principles that underlie the role of stem cells in delaying aging and on evolutionary forces that shape stem-cell gene regulatory networks. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12915-015-0148-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.