Honey bee life history plasticity: Development, behavior, and aging

Rascón, Brenda; Mutti, Navdeep S.; Tolfsen, Christina C.; Amdam, Gro V.

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199568765.003.0020

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…In addition, if workers can inherit the breeding position of a colony, we expect a reduced selection for longevity in queens. Studies on the proximate mechanisms that can help in testing such hypotheses are starting to accumulate, although they are still concentrated on the honeybee Apis mellifera , the bumblebee, Bombus terrestris , and a few ant species (e.g., reviews for honey bee: [25,26]; ant species [27–30]; bumblebee: [31]). Only three studies exist that address polyneopteran social insects, the termites, [18,32,33] which evolved eusociality independently from social Hymenoptera (wasps, bees and ants).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long live the queen, the king and the commoner? Transcript expression differences between old and young in the termite Cryptotermes secundus

2019

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Social insects provide promising new avenues for aging research. Within a colony, individuals that share the same genetic background can differ in lifespan by up to two orders of magnitude. Reproducing queens (and in termites also kings) can live for more than 20 years, extraordinary lifespans for insects. We studied aging in a termite species, Cryptotermes secundus , which lives in less socially complex societies with a few hundred colony members. Reproductives develop from workers which are totipotent immatures. Comparing transcriptomes of young and old individuals, we found evidence for aging in reproductives that was especially associated with DNA and protein damage and the activity of transposable elements. By contrast, workers seemed to be better protected against aging. Thus our results differed from those obtained for social insects that live in more complex societies. Yet, they are in agreement with lifespan estimates for the study species. Our data are also in line with expectations from evolutionary theory. For individuals that are able to reproduce, it predicts that aging should only start after reaching maturity. As C . secundus workers are immatures with full reproductive options we expect them to invest into anti-aging processes. Our study illustrates that the degree of aging can differ between social insects and that it may be associated with caste-specific opportunities for reproduction.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long live the queen, the king and the commoner? Transcript expression differences between old and young in the termite Cryptotermes secundus

2019

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“…In addition, in social Hymenoptera Vgs have much broader social functions. In the honeybee, Vgs are, for instance, involved in division of labor among workers (forager vs. nurse bees, pollen vs. nectar foragers), in aging or in immune priming (e.g., Seehuus et al, 2006;Nelson et al, 2007;Page and Amdam, 2007;Rascon et al, 2011;Salmela et al, 2015). In ants, they can be differentially expressed between castes (e.g., Gräff et al, 2007;Feldmeyer et al, 2014) and also regulate maternal effects on polyphenism .…”

Section: The Common Role Of Vitellogenins In Social Hymenoptera and Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genes Underlying Reproductive Division of Labor in Termites, with Comparisons to Social Hymenoptera

Korb

2016

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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All social insects are characterized by a reproductive division of labor. Within a colony only a few individuals reproduce (queens and in termites, also a king) while the large majority (workers and soldiers) forgo reproduction, at least temporarily. The evolution of such reproductive altruism can ultimately be explained by inclusive fitness theory. Here, I will review the proximate genetic mechanisms underlying this altruism in termites. As social cockroaches they evolved eusociality independently from the social Hymenoptera, which makes them interesting test cases to look for common underlying mechanisms of eusociality and lineage specific idiosyncrasies. First, I will provide a summary of the genes and their function that have been identified to underlie reproductive division of labor-so called "queen genes,"-in the drywood termite Cryptotermes secundus, an emerging model to study termite social evolution. Second, I outline how widespread these queen genes are across the termite phylogeny, using also evidence from recent genome analyses. I will provide hypotheses about the evolutionary origin of these queen genes, aiming to link proximate mechanisms with ultimate functions. Finally, I will draw comparisons to social Hymenoptera to indicate potential common underpinnings that warrant further testing.

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“…Another interesting and well studied example is the epigenetic regulation of the longevity of honeybee workers and queens (Apis mellifera; Amdam and Seehus 2006;Seehus et al 2006;Münch et al 2008;Rascon et al 2009). Honeybee workers, according to their social role such as foraging or brood rearing, exhibit an exceptional plasticity of their life cycle.…”

Section: Epigenetics and Agingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Apparently the calorie-restriction (CR) paradigm does not hold up in this society. Hundreds of genes were identified as differentially expressed in queen-and worker-destined larvae (Rascon et al 2009 for a review). Among the overexpressed genes in queen-larvae are the InsulinInsulin-like signalling and Target-Rapamycin (TOR) pathway regulator genes.…”

Section: Epigenetics and Agingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic, epigenetic and posttranslational mechanisms of aging

2010

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Gerontological experimentation is and was always strongly influenced by "theories". The early decades of molecular genetics inspired deterministic thinking, based on the "Central Dogma" (DNA --> RNA --> Proteins). With the progress of detailed knowledge of gene-function a much more complicated picture emerged. Regulation of gene-expression turned out to be a highly complicated process. Experimental gerontology produced over the last decades several "paradigms" incompatible with simple genetic determinism. The increasing number of such detailed experimental "facts" revealed the importance of epigenetic factors and of posttranslational modifications in the age-dependent decline of physiological functions. We shall present in this review a short but critical analysis of genetic and epigenetic processes applied to the interpretation of the more and more precisely elucidated experimental paradigms of aging followed by some of the most relevant aging-mechanisms at the post-translational level, the posttranslational modifications of proteins such as the Maillard reaction, the proteolytic production of harmful peptides and the molecular mechanisms of the aging of elastin with the role of the age-dependent uncoupling of the elastin receptor, as well as the loss of several other receptors. We insist also on the well documented influence of posttranslational modifications on gene expression and on the role of non-coding RNA-s. Altogether, these data replace the previous simplistic concepts on gene action as related to aging by a much more complicated picture, where epigenetic and posttranslational processes together with environmentally influenced genetic pathways play key-roles in aging and strongly influence gene expression.

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Honey bee life history plasticity: Development, behavior, and aging

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Long live the queen, the king and the commoner? Transcript expression differences between old and young in the termite Cryptotermes secundus

Long live the queen, the king and the commoner? Transcript expression differences between old and young in the termite Cryptotermes secundus

Genes Underlying Reproductive Division of Labor in Termites, with Comparisons to Social Hymenoptera

Genetic, epigenetic and posttranslational mechanisms of aging

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