Long live the queen, the king and the commoner? Transcript expression differences between old and young in the termite Cryptotermes secundus
Long live the queen, the king and the commoner? Transcript expression differences between old and young in the termite Cryptotermes secundus
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0210371
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发表时间：
2019-02-13
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Korb, Judith
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Kuhn, Jose Manuel Monroy;Meusemann, Karen;Korb, Judith
社会性昆虫为衰老研究提供了有希望的新途径。在一个群体中，具有相同遗传背景的个体的寿命可以相差两个数量级。繁殖的蚁后（白蚁中也有蚁王）可以活20多年，这对昆虫来说是非常长寿的。我们研究了白蚁物种Cryptotermes secundus的衰老，它生活在社会不太复杂的社会中，只有几百个群体成员。繁殖体是从全能的未成熟的工蜂发育而来的。通过比较年轻人和老年人的转录组，我们发现了生殖期衰老的证据，尤其是与DNA和蛋白质损伤以及转座因子的活性有关。相比之下，工人似乎更好地防止衰老。因此，我们的结果不同于那些生活在更复杂社会中的社会性昆虫。然而，它们与研究物种的寿命估计一致。我们的数据也符合进化理论的预期。对于能够繁殖的个体，它预测衰老应该在达到成熟后才开始。作为C. secundus工人是不成熟的，我们希望他们投资于抗衰老过程的充分生殖选择。我们的研究表明，社会昆虫之间的衰老程度可能不同，它可能与种姓特定的繁殖机会有关。
Social insects provide promising new avenues for aging research. Within a colony, individuals that share the same genetic background can differ in lifespan by up to two orders of magnitude. Reproducing queens (and in termites also kings) can live for more than 20 years, extraordinary lifespans for insects. We studied aging in a termite species, Cryptotermes secundus, which lives in less socially complex societies with a few hundred colony members. Reproductives develop from workers which are totipotent immatures. Comparing transcriptomes of young and old individuals, we found evidence for aging in reproductives that was especially associated with DNA and protein damage and the activity of transposable elements. By contrast, workers seemed to be better protected against aging. Thus our results differed from those obtained for social insects that live in more complex societies. Yet, they are in agreement with lifespan estimates for the study species. Our data are also in line with expectations from evolutionary theory. For individuals that are able to reproduce, it predicts that aging should only start after reaching maturity. As C. secundus workers are immatures with full reproductive options we expect them to invest into anti-aging processes. Our study illustrates that the degree of aging can differ between social insects and that it may be associated with caste-specific opportunities for reproduction.