Life history evolution and ageing in termites

生物体为什么以及如何衰老？一个核心概念，整合了这种最终和接近的方法对进化问题的想法是繁殖力/寿命的权衡，这是几乎普遍的多细胞生物：增加繁殖力与直接和间接的成本，从而减少寿命。社会性昆虫（如蜜蜂、蚂蚁和白蚁）是一个显著的例外：在这里，繁殖力最强的个体，即蚁后（在白蚁中也是蚁王），是寿命最长的生物体，其寿命比不繁殖的工蚁高出两个数量级。我们建议研究老龄化和繁殖力/寿命权衡白蚁在近端和最终的水平。我们的第一个目标将是使用新获得的基因组数据来分析分子衰老途径，以测试与其他生物的差异，特别是社会性Hyplitera和非社会性昆虫。此外，我们测试是否增加投资的分子维护可以解释女王的寿命长。在我们的第二个目标中，我们结合联合收割机的近似和最终的方法和实验研究几个生物和非生物因素对衰老和繁殖力的影响。通过测量蚁后和工蜂的健康参数和生理衰老指标，我们将测试这些因素是否同样影响蚁后和工蜂。通过将近似与最终观点相结合，并通过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了解。

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.