Background Organisms live in environments that vary. highly plastic for dauer larva development also maintain a high populace growth rate when stressed. We recognized quantitative trait loci (QTL) on two chromosomes that control the dauer larva development and populace size phenotypes. The QTLs affecting the dauer larva development and populace size phenotypes on chromosome II are closely linked, but are genetically separable. This chromosome II QTL controlling dauer larva development does not encompass any loci previously recognized to control dauer larva development. This chromosome II Fluticasone propionate region contains many predicted 7-transmembrane receptors. Such proteins are often involved in information transduction, which is clearly relevant to the control of dauer larva development. Conclusion C. elegans alters both its larval development and adult reproductive strategy in response to environmental stress. Together the phenotypic and genotypic data suggest that these two major life-history characteristics are co-ordinated responses to environmental stress and that they are, at least in part, controlled by the same genomic regions. Background Organisms live in environments that vary both spatially and temporally. In such variable environments there are different ways to maximise fitness. Life-history characteristics can either be strong to environmental switch (a buffered or canalised trait) or they can be variable in an environmentally-dependent manner (a phenotypically plastic trait). Phenotypic plasticity of a trait can be manifest as a continuous phenotypic range across an environmental gradient, such as the variance in Drosophila Sdc1 melanogaster body size metrics across heat ranges [1]. Alternatively, phenotypic plasticity may appear as a threshold trait, with apparently unique phenotypes developing in different environments. An example of this is the switch between winged and wingless aphid morphs in response to host herb quality and, or aphid populace density [2]. These different phenotypic responses have been termed phenotypic modulation and developmental conversion, respectively [3]. A priori, fitness could be maximised by all characteristics being fully phenotypically plastic. However, phenotypically plastic characteristics vary both within and between populations, particularly in the magnitude and sensitivity of their response to environmental switch: in the language of phenotypic plasticity, there may be different reaction norms. The presence of this variance suggests that you will find limits or costs to the development of phenotypically plastic characteristics and of the reaction norms of characteristics, and therefore that fitness is usually maximised by not all characteristics being fully phenotypically plastic. These costs are likely to be (i) having sufficiently accurate and strong processes for environmental sensation, (ii) maintaining the genetic and cellular machinery for the development of alternate phenotypes and (iii) co-ordination between different phenotypically plastic characteristics [4-6]. Therefore, all characteristics Fluticasone propionate can be considered on a continuum from those that are fully plastic, via those with a low level plasticity, to non-plastic, invariant characteristics. The molecular basis of the phenotypic plasticity of most characteristics is not obvious, but progress in identifying genes involved in such environmental interactions is being made (e.g [7-10]). For many organisms, including intensively analyzed ‘model’ species, the role and function of the majority of genes remains unknown [11,12]. It is probable that genes involved in phenotypically plastic characteristics, especially the means by which the phenotype is usually modulated in response to the environment, are among these genes with, as yet, unidentified Fluticasone propionate functions. Given this, it is crucial to move towards integrating an understanding of the molecular basis of phenotypic plasticity with the ecology of the species in question [13]. The model free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has a phenotypically plastic developmental switch in its life-cycle. In the ‘normal’ C. elegans life-cycle, progeny moult through four larval stages (L1 C L4).