BIODEMOGRAPHIC EFFECTS OF SOCIAL EVOLUTION IN THE HONEY BEE

本研究旨在探讨社会进化对蜜蜂衰老和死亡模式的影响。社会对衰老影响的研究在很大程度上仅限于对人类的调查，这必然具有有限的实验方法。群居昆虫群体是复杂的适应系统，代表了主要的进化转变之一。它们允许在不同层次的生物组织中研究衰老，包括社会单位、个体、生理过程及其相互作用。蜜蜂已经是许多生物学学科的典范，因此，它将构成衰老研究的一个重要的社会模式生物。第一个目标是调查蜜蜂寿命的社会决定因素，具体解决以下问题：a)个体（遗传）特性和社会环境对个体寿命的相对贡献是什么？b)群体人口统计（群体规模和年龄构成）如何影响个体寿命？育儿（代际传递）如何影响寿命？这些问题中的每一个都将在一系列的实验中得到解决，这些实验包括广泛的群体操作和人口调查，多个焦点队列的年龄特异性生存测量，以及个体和群体资源分配的直接测量。将对数据进行分析，以验证与项目中的其他合作者共同进行的理论进展。

The objective of this research project is to investigate the effects of social evolution on aging and mortality patterns in the honey bee (Apis mellifera L). The study of social influences on aging is largely restricted to investigations on humans that have a necessarily limited experimental approach. Social insect colonies are complex adaptive systems representing one of the major evolutionary transitions. They allow studies of aging at different levels of biological organization including the social unit, the individual, physiological processes, and their interactions. Already a model in a number of biological disciplines, the honey bee thus will constitute an important, social model organism for aging research. The first aim is to investigate social determinants of honey bee lifespan, specifically addressing the following questions: a) What are the relative contributions of individual (genetic) properties and social environment to individual lifespan? b) How do group demographics (group size and age composition) affect individual lifespan? How does brood care (intergenerational transfer) influence lifespan? Each of these questions will be addressed in a series of experiments that involve extensive colony manipulations and demographic surveys, age-specific survival measures of multiple, focal cohorts, and direct measures of resource allocation in individuals and colonies. The data will be analyzed to validate concurrent theoretical advances in conjunction with other collaborators in the program project. The second aim is to determine different components of behavioral senescence in honey bee workers. Honey bee foraging performance declines with age. Deterioration of sensory (olfactory, gustatory, visual responsiveness), and motor (flight and locomotion) systems at advanced ages will be studied. Furthermore, higher-order processes such as cognitive abilities (learning and memory) and recruitment behavior (dance tempo) will be investigated for age effects. Honey bee foragers of different age classes will be subjected to well-established behavioral assays. Potential links between the various measures of behavioral senescence and physiological measurements will be investigated, and the role of senescence for societal organization will be scrutinized.