Fig. 4: The sensory cilia induce AMPK activity across tissues.

a The phosphorylation levels of AMPK (p-AMPK) in young WT worms subjected to indicated treatments. The bacteria of OP50 (orange) is the food of C. elegans. Note that daf-19 upregulates p-AMPK only when worms are fed (OP50 in the plate, a) or smell the food (OP50 on the lid, b). n = 3 biological independent experiments. Exact p value are included in Source Data file. b Overexpressing daf-19c by its native promoter (1# and 2#) or a neuron-specific promoter (neu) increases p-AMPK levels in both young and aged worms. n = 3 biological independent experiments. Exact p value are included in Source Data file. c Downregulating daf-19 in neurons from adulthood reduces p-AMPK levels in both young and aged worms. n = 3 biological independent experiments. Exact p value are included in Source Data file. d Overexpressing daf-19c reduces the nuclear localisation of CRTC-1::RFP in the intestinal cells. Dotted lines denote the nucleus of intestinal cells. Scale bar: 10 μm. n = 51 and 52 animals, respectively. p < 0.0001. e Disrupting cilia by mutating osm-3 suppresses the increase of p-AMPK in the worms overexpressing daf-19c at day 1 of adulthood by its native promoter (1#) or a neuron-specific promoter (neu). n = 3 biological independent experiments. Exact p value are included in Source Data file. f p-AMPK levels decrease in worm mutants with defected cilia (osm-3(-), osm-6(-)). n = 3 biological independent experiments. Exact p value are included in Source Data file. α-tubulin serves as loading controls in western blot assays. Data are presented as mean ± SD. Unpaired t-test (two-tailed) in d, and one-way ANOVA in the rest. *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001, ns non-significant. Source data with exact p values are provided as a Source Data file.