Life history evolution and ageing in termites

生物体为什么会衰老，又是如何衰老的？将这种终极和近似方法整合到进化问题中的一个核心概念是生殖力/寿命权衡的想法，这在多细胞生物中几乎是普遍存在的：生殖力的增加与直接和间接成本相关，从而减少了寿命。群居昆虫（如蜜蜂、蚂蚁和白蚁）是显著的例外：这里最多产的个体，蚁后（在白蚁中也有蚁王），是最长寿的生物，其寿命比那些不繁殖的工蚁高出两个数量级。我们建议从近缘和终极水平研究白蚁的衰老和繁殖力/寿命权衡。我们的第一个目标将是利用最新的基因组数据分析分子衰老途径，以测试与其他生物的差异，特别是社会性膜翅目昆虫和非社会性昆虫。此外，我们测试了在分子维护方面的投资增加是否可以解释蜂王的长寿。在我们的第二个目标中，我们结合了近似和最终方法，并实验研究了几种生物和非生物因素对衰老和繁殖力的影响。通过测量蜂王和工蜂的健康参数和生理衰老指标，我们将检验这些因素对蜂王和工蜂的影响是否相同。通过将近似值与终极值相结合，并使用分子基因组工具以及行为/生态实验，我们的项目旨在提供对衰老和生命史进化的更全面理解。

Why and how do organisms age? A central concept that integrates this ultimate and proximate approach towards evolutionary questions is the idea of a fecundity/longevity trade-off that is almost universal in multicellular organisms: increased fecundity is associated with direct and indirect costs which reduce longevity as a consequence. Social insects (such as the honeybee, ants, and termites) are striking exceptions: here the most fecund individuals, the queens (in termites also the kings), are the most long-lived organisms with a lifespan up to two orders of magnitude higher than those of the non-reproducing workers. We propose to study ageing and the fecundity/longevity trade-off in termites at the proximate and ultimate level. Our first objective will be to analyse molecular ageing pathways using newly available genomic data to test for differences to other organisms, in particular social Hymenoptera and non-social insects. Additionally, we test whether increased investment in molecular maintenance can explain the long life of queens. In our second objective we combine the proximate and ultimate approach and experimentally investigate several biotic and abiotic factors for their influence on ageing and fecundity. By measuring fitness parameters and physiological ageing markers in queens and workers, we will test whether these factors affect queens and workers equally. Through the integration of a proximate with an ultimate perspective and by using molecular genomic tools as well as behavioural/ecological experiments, our project aims at providing a fuller understanding of ageing and life history evolution.