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

为什么动物会衰老？这是一个对科学家和公众都至关重要的问题。然而，尽管它很重要，这个谜题仍然没有得到很好的理解。衰老的核心是繁殖力与寿命的权衡：几乎所有动物的繁殖力增加都是与寿命缩短相权衡的。主要的例外是群居昆虫，如蜜蜂、蚂蚁和白蚁。它们的蚁后是最多产、最长寿的昆虫之一，繁殖可以延长寿命。这使得社会性昆虫有望成为我们在研究部门探索的新的衰老模式。我们的首要目标是了解社会性昆虫的繁殖力/寿命权衡是如何以及为什么被逆转的，以及这种平衡是如何在独立的谱系中进化趋同的。在第一个资助阶段，我们从终极和近似的角度研究衰老，涵盖了三个社会昆虫的谱系（蚂蚁、蜜蜂和白蚁），并使用果蝇作为单独的对照。这种方法使我们能够开发出第一个为社会性昆虫量身定制的进化衰老模型，该模型确定了解释蜂王寿命的关键变量。此外，我们还发现了有希望的候选基因和与衰老相关的途径，以及生育力/寿命权衡的逆转。我们的研究结果表明，在表型水平上的趋同进化是由不同社会物种的不同分子变化完成的，但沿着相同的途径。在第二个资助阶段，我们将更详细地探讨这些结果。我们有三个重点：重点A“综合”项目将进行比较研究和分析，以获得对生殖力/寿命权衡重塑的一般和特殊机制的总体看法。在焦点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繁殖力/寿命权衡的途径和网络及其重新布线。Focus C“过渡”项目将比较研究蜜蜂、蚂蚁和白蚁在多重社会过渡中老龄化和繁殖力/寿命权衡的重塑，以揭示社会性如何以及为什么改变了这种权衡。因此，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。通过揭示从共同繁殖力/寿命权衡中明显逃脱的基础，我们期望更好地理解控制繁殖力、寿命、衰老和健康的基本生物学规则。

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.