Life history evolution and ageing in termites

为什么生物会衰老，又是如何衰老的？一个核心概念整合了解决进化问题的这种终极和直接的方法，即在多细胞生物体中几乎普遍存在的繁殖力/寿命权衡的想法：繁殖力的增加与直接和间接成本相关，而直接和间接成本因此会降低寿命。群居昆虫(如蜜蜂、蚂蚁和白蚁)是引人注目的例外：在这里，繁殖力最强的个体--蚁后(白蚁也是国王)是最长寿的有机体，寿命比不繁殖的工蚁高出两个数量级。我们建议在最近和最终的水平上研究白蚁的老化和繁殖力/寿命之间的权衡。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老化途径，以测试与其他生物的差异，特别是社会性膜翅目和非社会性昆虫。此外，我们还测试了增加对分子维护的投资是否可以解释蜂王的长寿。在我们的第二个目标中，我们结合最近的和最终的方法，通过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，我们将测试这些因素是否同样影响蜂王和工蜂。通过将近亲和终极视角相结合，并使用分子基因组工具以及行为/生态学实验，我们的项目旨在提供对衰老和生活史进化的更全面的理解。

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.