Keller Laurent, Jemielity Stephanie
Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Biophore, 1015 Lausanne-Dorigny, Switzerland.
Exp Gerontol. 2006 Jun;41(6):553-6. doi: 10.1016/j.exger.2006.04.002. Epub 2006 May 19.
One major gap in the current knowledge of the molecular bases of ageing is that most of the work has been done using short-lived model organisms such as fruitflies, nematodes, yeast and mice. Here, we argue that ants and social bee species provide an excellent complementary system to study ageing, and this for two reasons: first, in contrast to model organisms, ant and bee queens are extraordinarily long-lived, and second, there is a tremendous variation in lifespan among the genetically identical queens, workers (non-reproductive females) and males, with queens living up to 500 times longer than males and 10 times longer than workers. We review recent experimental work aimed at testing the role of antioxidant genes within the conceptual framework of the free radical theory of ageing, as well as studies investigating the role of juvenile hormone, vitellogenin and telomeres as mediators of ageing in social insects.
目前在衰老分子基础的认识方面存在一个主要差距，即大多数研究工作是使用果蝇、线虫、酵母和小鼠等寿命较短的模式生物进行的。在此，我们认为蚂蚁和群居蜜蜂物种为研究衰老提供了一个极佳的补充系统，原因有二：其一，与模式生物不同，蚁后和蜂后寿命极长；其二，在基因相同的蚁后、工蚁（非生殖性雌性）和雄蚁中，寿命存在巨大差异，蚁后寿命比雄蚁长500倍，比工蚁长10倍。我们回顾了近期旨在检验抗氧化基因在衰老自由基理论概念框架内作用的实验工作，以及研究保幼激素、卵黄原蛋白和端粒作为群居昆虫衰老调节因子作用的研究。
