Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany.
Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2021 Apr 26;376(1823):20190736. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0736. Epub 2021 Mar 8.
The evolution of sociality in insects caused a divergence in lifespan between reproductive and non-reproductive castes. Ant queens can live for decades, while most workers survive only weeks to a few years. In most organisms, longevity is traded-off with reproduction, but in social insects, these two life-history traits are positively linked. Once fertility is induced in workers, e.g. by queen removal, worker lifespan increases. The molecular regulation of this positive link between fecundity and longevity and generally the molecular underpinnings of caste-specific senescence are not well understood. Here, we investigate the transcriptomic regulation of lifespan and reproduction in fat bodies of three worker groups in the ant . In a long-term experiment, workers that became fertile in the absence of the queen showed increased survival and upregulation of genes involved in longevity and fecundity pathways. Interestingly, workers that re-joined their queen after months exhibited intermediate ovary development, but retained a high expression of longevity and fecundity genes. Strikingly, the queen's presence causes a general downregulation of genes in worker fat bodies. Our findings point to long-term consequences of fertility induction in workers, even after re-joining their queen. Moreover, we reveal longevity genes and pathways modulated during insect social evolution. This article is part of the theme issue 'Ageing and sociality: why, when and how does sociality change ageing patterns?'
昆虫社会性的进化导致了生殖和非生殖等级之间寿命的差异。蚁后可以活几十年，而大多数工蚁只能存活几周到几年。在大多数生物中，寿命与繁殖呈负相关，但在社会性昆虫中，这两个生命史特征是正相关的。一旦工蚁被诱导生育，例如通过移除蚁后，工蚁的寿命就会延长。这种生育力和寿命之间的正相关的分子调控机制，以及一般来说特定等级衰老的分子基础，还不是很清楚。在这里，我们研究了蚂蚁三种工蚁群体的脂肪体中寿命和繁殖的转录组调控。在一个长期实验中，在没有蚁后的情况下变得有生育能力的工蚁表现出存活时间延长和与寿命和生育力途径相关的基因上调。有趣的是，在与蚁后重新团聚几个月后，工蚁的卵巢发育处于中间阶段，但仍保持着长寿和生育力基因的高表达。引人注目的是，蚁后的存在导致工蚁脂肪体中基因的普遍下调。我们的研究结果表明，即使在重新与蚁后团聚后，生育诱导对工蚁也会产生长期影响。此外，我们还揭示了在昆虫社会性进化过程中调节的长寿基因和途径。本文是“衰老与社会性：为什么、何时以及社会性如何改变衰老模式？”这一主题特刊的一部分。
