FOR 2281: Sociality and the reversal of the fecundity-longevity trade-off

FOR 2281：社会性和生育力与寿命权衡的逆转

• 批准号: 261675780
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Senckenberg Biodiversität und Klima Forschungszentrum (BiK-F)
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Units
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/261675780?language=en
• 关键词: 2281; Sociality; reversal; fecundity; longevity

Why do animals age? This is a question of fundamental importancefor scientists and the general public alike. Yet despite its importancethis puzzle is still not well understood. Central for ageing is thefecundity/longevity trade-off: in almost all animals an increase inreproduction is traded-off against a shortened lifespan. Majorexceptions are social insects, such as honey bees, ants and termites.Their queens are amongst the most fecund and the most long-livinginsects and reproduction increases longevity. This makes socialinsects promising new ageing models which we explore within ourresearch unit. Our overarching goal is to understand how and why thefecundity/longevity trade-off is reversed in social insects and how thisevolved convergently in independent lineages. During the first fundingphase we studied ageing from an ultimate and proximate perspective,covering three lineages of social insects (ants, bees, and termites)and using Drosophila melanogaster as a solitary control. Thisapproach allowed us to develop the first evolutionary ageing modelstailored to social insects which identified crucial variables forexplaining queen longevity. Additionally, we found promisingcandidate genes and pathways associated with ageing and thereversal of the fecundity/longevity trade-off. Our results suggest thatconvergent evolution at the phenotypic level was accomplished bydifferent molecular changes across social species but along the samepathways. During the second funding phase we will explore theseresults in more detail. We have three Foci: The projects of Focus A‘Synthesis’ will undertake comparative studies and analyses to obtainan overarching view of the general and idiosyncratic mechanisms ofthe reshaping of the fecundity/longevity trade-off. Within Focus B‘Regulators’, projects will perform functional experiments and in-depthanalyses to reveal the pathways and networks and their re-wiring,underlying the reshaping of the fecundity/longevity trade-off usingselected species. The projects of Focus C ‘Transitions’ willcomparatively study ageing and the reshaping of thefecundity/longevity trade-off along multiple social transitions withinbees, ants and termites to uncover how and why sociality changedthe trade-off. Combined, we thus aim at gaining fundamental insightsinto the mechanisms and causes of ageing and sociality. Byuncovering the basis of the apparent escape from the commonfecundity/longevity trade-off, we expect to understand better thefundamental biological rules governing fecundity, longevity,senescence, and health.

动物为什么会衰老？这是一个对科学家和公众都具有根本重要性的问题。然而，尽管这个谜题很重要，但人们仍然没有很好地理解它。衰老的核心是繁殖力/寿命的权衡：几乎所有动物都是繁殖力的增加与寿命的缩短相权衡。主要例外是社会性昆虫，如蜜蜂、蚂蚁和白蚁。它们的蜂王是最多产和最长寿的昆虫，繁殖增加寿命。这使得社会昆虫有希望成为我们研究单位探索的新的衰老模型。我们的首要目标是了解如何以及为什么生殖力/寿命的权衡是逆转社会昆虫和如何thisevolvently在独立的谱系。在第一个fundingphase，我们研究了衰老从最终和近的角度来看，涵盖了三个谱系的社会昆虫（蚂蚁，蜜蜂和白蚁）和使用果蝇作为一个单独的控制。这种方法使我们能够开发出第一个针对群居昆虫的进化衰老模型，该模型确定了解释蜂王寿命的关键变量。此外，我们还发现了与衰老和生殖力/寿命权衡相关的有希望的候选基因和途径。我们的研究结果表明，在表型水平上的趋同进化是通过不同的分子变化在社会物种，但沿着相同的途径完成的。在第二个资助阶段，我们将更详细地探索这些结果。我们有三个焦点：重点A“综合”项目将进行比较研究和分析，以获得对生殖力/寿命权衡的一般和特殊机制的总体看法。在重点B“调节器”中，项目将进行功能实验和深入分析，以揭示使用选定物种重塑生殖力/寿命权衡的途径和网络及其重新布线。Focus C 'Transitions'的项目将比较研究老龄化以及蜜蜂、蚂蚁和白蚁在多个社会转型中生殖力/寿命权衡的重塑，以揭示社会性如何以及为什么改变了权衡。结合起来，我们的目标是获得对老龄化和社会性的机制和原因的基本见解。通过揭示这种明显逃避生育力/寿命权衡的基础，我们期望更好地理解控制生育力、寿命、衰老和健康的基本生物学规则。