Caenorhabditis elegans RSD-2 and RSD-6 promote germ cell immortality by maintaining small interfering RNA populations

Here, we establish a role for small RNAs in promoting transgenerational fertility via an endogenous temperature-sensitive silencing process that is promoted by the RNAi spreading defective (RSD)-2 and RSD-6 proteins, which have been implicated in RNA interference in response to exogenous double-stranded RNA triggers. This process could be broadly relevant to transgenerational maintenance of heterochromatin and is plausibly relevant to regulation of aging of somatic cells as they proliferate.