{
  "id": 10711427,
  "title": "The MAPK phosphatase VHP-1 buffers pharynx-to-body proportions against tissue-specific growth imbalance in C. elegans",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/29/the-mapk-phosphatase-vhp-1-buffers-pharynx-to-body-proportions",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-09-29T00:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "bioRxiv",
    "slug": "biorxiv",
    "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.28.754458v1?rss=1"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Properly sized organs are essential for a consistent body plan, but how they are maintained remains a mystery. Researchers studied pharynx-to-body proportion regulation in Caenorhabditis elegans by combining tissue-specific interventions, genetic screening, and real-time imaging. A comprehensive RNAi screen identified the dual-specificity MAPK phosphatase VHP-1 as a key player in maintaining the balance between pharynx and body size. Knockdown of VHP-1 made animals more sensitive to growth imbalances caused by changes in pharyngeal or epidermal mTORC1 activator RAGA-1 or ribosomal protein RPL-22. Interestingly, VHP-1 mutants were able to endure global RAGA-1 depletion, suggesting that VHP-1 has a tissue-specific role in responding to growth imbalances. Suppressing the p38 pathway reduced the imbalance-specific defects in VHP-1 mutants, while JNK knockdown rescued the overall phenotypes of VHP-1 mutants but only partially alleviated their sensitivity to RAGA-1 imbalance. The study also revealed that VHP-1 levels increased when epidermal RAGA-1 was depleted, and that VHP-1 levels alone could not replicate the hypersensitivity caused by global VHP-1 loss, indicating that VHP-1 operates outside the growth-perturbed epidermis to buffer local growth imbalance.",
  "summary": "Maintaining appropriate organ size ratios in the face of growth fluctuations is critical for the development of a reproducible body plan. Yet the mechanisms involved remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated how pharynx-to-body proportions are maintained in Caenorhabditis elegans, combining tissue-specific perturbations, genetic screening, and longitudinal live imaging. A genome-wide RNAi…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}