Laboratory of Insect Ecology, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2021 Apr 26;376(1823):20190740. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0740. Epub 2021 Mar 8.
Lifespan varies greatly across the tree of life. Of the various explanations for this phenomenon, those that involve trade-offs between reproduction and longevity have gained considerable support. There is an important exception: social insect reproductives (queens and in termites, also kings) exhibit both high reproductive outputs and extraordinarily long lives. As both the ultimate and proximate mechanisms underlying the absence of the fecundity/longevity trade-off could shed light on the unexpected dynamics and molecular mechanisms of extended longevity, reproductives of social insects have attracted much attention in the field of ageing research. Here, we highlight current ecological and physiological studies on ageing and discuss the various possible evolutionary and molecular explanations of the extended lifespans of termite reproductives. We integrate these findings into a coherent framework revealing the evolution of longevity in these reproductives. Studies on termites may explain why and how ageing is shaped by natural selection. This article is part of the theme issue 'Ageing and sociality: why, when and how does sociality change ageing patterns?'
寿命在生命之树上有很大的差异。在解释这种现象的各种原因中，那些涉及繁殖和寿命之间权衡的原因得到了相当多的支持。但有一个重要的例外：社会性昆虫的繁殖者（蚁后和白蚁中的蚁王，也被称为国王）表现出高繁殖力和极其长的寿命。由于潜在机制和终极机制都可以阐明延长寿命的意外动态和分子机制，因此社会性昆虫的繁殖者在衰老研究领域引起了广泛关注。在这里，我们重点介绍了衰老的当前生态和生理学研究，并讨论了白蚁繁殖者延长寿命的各种可能的进化和分子解释。我们将这些发现整合到一个连贯的框架中，揭示了这些繁殖者长寿的进化。白蚁的研究可能解释了为什么以及如何通过自然选择塑造衰老。本文是主题为“衰老与社会性：社会性如何、何时以及为什么改变衰老模式？”的特刊的一部分。
