Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, IPHC UMR 7178, 23 rue du Loess, 67037, Strasbourg Cedex 2, France.
Infrastructure Nationale de Protéomique ProFI, 25 rue Becquerel, 67037, Strasbourg Cedex 2, France.
Sci Rep. 2023 Jan 5;13(1):186. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-26515-1.
Position within the social group has consequences on individual lifespans in diverse taxa. This is especially obvious in eusocial insects, where workers differ in both the tasks they perform and their aging rates. However, in eusocial wasps, bees and ants, the performed task usually depends strongly on age. As such, untangling the effects of social role and age on worker physiology is a key step towards understanding the coevolution of sociality and aging. We performed an experimental protocol that allowed a separate analysis of these two factors using four groups of black garden ant (Lasius niger) workers: young foragers, old foragers, young nest workers, and old nest workers. We highlighted age-related differences in the proteome and metabolome of workers that were primarily related to worker subcaste and only secondarily to age. The relative abundance of proteins and metabolites suggests an improved xenobiotic detoxification, and a fuel metabolism based more on lipid use than carbohydrate use in young ants, regardless of their social role. Regardless of age, proteins related to the digestive function were more abundant in nest workers than in foragers. Old foragers were mostly characterized by weak abundances of molecules with an antibiotic activity or involved in chemical communication. Finally, our results suggest that even in tiny insects, extended lifespan may require to mitigate cancer risks. This is consistent with results found in eusocial rodents and thus opens up the discussion of shared mechanisms among distant taxa and the influence of sociality on life history traits such as longevity.
社会群体中的地位会对不同分类群的个体寿命产生影响。这在真社会性昆虫中尤为明显，工蜂在执行的任务和衰老速度上存在差异。然而，在真社会性黄蜂、蜜蜂和蚂蚁中，执行的任务通常强烈依赖于年龄。因此，理清社会角色和年龄对工蜂生理的影响是理解社会性和衰老共同进化的关键步骤。我们采用了一种实验方案，使用四个黑花园蚁（Lasius niger）工蜂群体：年轻的觅食工蜂、年老的觅食工蜂、年轻的巢居工蜂和年老的巢居工蜂，分别分析了这两个因素的影响。我们强调了与工人亚等级相关的与年龄相关的蛋白质组和代谢组学差异，而与年龄相关的差异仅次之。蛋白质和代谢物的相对丰度表明，年轻蚂蚁的外来生物解毒和燃料代谢能力得到了改善，其基于脂质的使用而非碳水化合物的使用。无论其社会角色如何，年轻蚂蚁的蛋白质和代谢物的相对丰度都表明其具有更好的外来生物解毒和基于脂质的使用而非碳水化合物的使用的燃料代谢能力。无论年龄大小，与消化功能相关的蛋白质在巢居工蜂中的丰度都高于觅食工蜂。年老的觅食工蜂的特征主要是具有抗生素活性或参与化学通讯的分子的丰度较弱。最后，我们的结果表明，即使在微小的昆虫中，延长寿命可能需要减轻癌症风险。这与真社会性啮齿动物的研究结果一致，因此，我们可以讨论不同分类群之间共享的机制，以及社会性对寿命等生命史特征的影响。
