Faculty of Science and Engineering, Theoretical Research in Evolutionary Life Sciences, RUG, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands.
Department of Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Institute of Biology I (Zoology), University of Freiburg, Hauptstraße 1, 79104 Freiburg (Brsg.), Germany.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2021 Apr 26;376(1823):20190732. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0732. Epub 2021 Mar 8.
The life-prolonging effects of antioxidants have long entered popular culture, but the scientific community still debates whether free radicals and the resulting oxidative stress negatively affect longevity. Social insects are intriguing models for analysing the relationship between oxidative stress and senescence because life histories differ vastly between long-lived reproductives and the genetically similar but short-lived workers. Here, we present the results of an experiment on the accumulation of oxidative damage to proteins, and a comparative analysis of the expression of 20 selected genes commonly involved in managing oxidative damage, across four species of social insects: a termite, two bees and an ant. Although the source of analysed tissue varied across the four species, our results suggest that oxidative stress is a significant factor in senescence and that its manifestation and antioxidant defenses differ among species, making it difficult to find general patterns. More detailed and controlled investigations on why responses to oxidative stress may differ across social species may lead to a better understanding of the relations between oxidative stress, antioxidants, social life history and senescence. This article is part of the theme issue 'Ageing and sociality: why, when and how does sociality change ageing patterns?'
抗氧化剂的延年益寿效果早已深入人心，但科学界仍在争论自由基和由此产生的氧化应激是否会对寿命产生负面影响。社会昆虫是分析氧化应激与衰老之间关系的有趣模型，因为它们的生活史在长寿的生殖个体和基因相似但寿命较短的工蜂之间存在巨大差异。在这里，我们展示了一项关于蛋白质氧化损伤积累的实验结果，以及对四种社会昆虫（一种白蚁、两种蜜蜂和一种蚂蚁）中 20 种常见参与管理氧化损伤的基因表达的比较分析。尽管分析组织的来源在四种物种之间有所不同，但我们的结果表明，氧化应激是衰老的一个重要因素，其表现和抗氧化防御在物种之间存在差异，因此很难找到普遍模式。对为什么抗氧化应激的反应可能会在社会物种之间存在差异进行更详细和更严格的调查，可能会有助于更好地理解氧化应激、抗氧化剂、社会生活史和衰老之间的关系。本文是主题为“衰老与社会性：为什么、何时以及社会性如何改变衰老模式？”的一部分。
