Queen life-span and total reproductive success are positively associated in the ant Cardiocondyla cf. kagutsuchi

Heınze, Jürgen; Frohschammer, Sabine; Bernadou, Abel

doi:10.1007/s00265-013-1567-9

Cited by 33 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…[14]). Existing evolutionary models have traditionally been mechanistic, and thus there is a need for models to explicitly take into account new information on regulatory and metabolic networks that might play a role in the senescence process.…”

Section: Current Opinion In Insect Sciencementioning

confidence: 93%

Why do social insect queens live so long? Approaches to unravel the sociality-aging puzzle

Korb

2016

Current Opinion in Insect Science

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Section: Current Opinion In Insect Sciencementioning

confidence: 93%

Why do social insect queens live so long? Approaches to unravel the sociality-aging puzzle

Korb

2016

Current Opinion in Insect Science

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“…The reproduction/life-span trade-off is absent in comparisons among castes, since queens are able to enjoy both longer life spans and higher reproductive output compared to workers (Keller and Genoud, 1997), much like germline cells compared to somatic cells (Boomsma et al, 2014). Furthermore, even among queens the usual trade-offs do not seem to apply, as recent studies have shown that high reproductive success does not compromise life-spans of the queens (Heinze and Schrempf, 2012;Heinze et al, 2013). Social insect queens might not suffer from reproductive trade-offs similarly to solitary organisms, since the costs of reproduction are mostly carried by the workers who take care of the brood and maintain colony homeostasis.…”

Section: Life History Trade-offsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While comparative data from natural populations is rare and extremely labor-intensive to achieve, and unavailable apart from a few model systems (Cole, 2009;Gordon, 2010), there is potential in experimentally accessible colonies with shorter life spans (Heinze and Schrempf, 2012;Heinze et al, 2013). Even if social insect life histories have been described in an organismal light for almost 40 years, there is much unexplored potential to experimentally study how life-history trade-offs that regulate e.g., colony aging evolve at the superorganismal level.…”

Section: Life History Trade-offsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Organismal Perspective on the Evolution of Insect Societies

Helanterä

2016

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Insect societies, i.e., the colonies of eusocial ants, bees, wasps, and termites, have been likened to multicellular organisms for more than a century. This framework of "superorganisms" has to date largely been used as a mechanistic description of colony functioning, or as an example of an evolutionary transition in individuality. Here I take the superorganismal view a step further, and explore what can potentially be gained if we truly accept insect societies as organisms. I suggest ways to test evolutionary theories about organismal features originally derived for solitary organisms using traits of insect societies as analogies. I explore examples such as evolution of anisogamy, sex allocation, and fertilization strategies and life histories, and point out promising directions for comparative work, and potential confounding factors in such analyses, derived from social insect studies.

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“…Mating appears to prolong the lifespan of queens independently of their actual reproductive rate (Schrempf et al ., , ; Schrempf & Heinze, ). In addition, fertility and longevity tend to be positively correlated in fertile queens of C. obscurior and a closely related species (Heinze & Schrempf, ; Heinze et al ., ). Regardless of the specific findings, no study in a natural colony context can definitely determine whether the observed longevity is due to a change in worker behaviour towards reproductives or intrinsic changes of the reproductives themselves.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Intrinsic survival advantage of social insect queens depends on reproductive activation

Rueppell

Königseder

Heınze

et al. 2015

J of Evolutionary Biology

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The central trade-off between reproduction and longevity dominates most species’ life history. However, no mortality cost of reproduction is apparent in eusocial species, particularly social insects in the order Hymenoptera: one or a few individuals (typically referred to as queens) in a group specialize on reproduction and are generally longer-lived than all other group members (typically referred to as workers), despite having the same genome. However, it is unclear whether this survival advantage is due to social facilitation by the group or an intrinsic, individual property. Furthermore, it is unknown whether the correlation between reproduction and longevity is due to a direct mechanistic link or an indirect consequence of the social role of the reproductives. To begin addressing these questions, we performed a comparison of queen and worker longevity in the ant Cardiocondyla obscurior under social isolation conditions. Survival of single queens and workers was compared under laboratory condition, monitoring and controlling for brood production. Our results indicate that there is no intrinsic survival advantage of queens relative to workers unless individuals are becoming reproductively active. This interactive effect of caste and reproduction on life expectancy outside of the normal social context suggests that the positive correlation between reproduction and longevity in social insect queens is due to a direct link that can activate intrinsic survival mechanisms to ensure queen longevity.

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Queen life-span and total reproductive success are positively associated in the ant Cardiocondyla cf. kagutsuchi

Cited by 33 publications

References 42 publications

Why do social insect queens live so long? Approaches to unravel the sociality-aging puzzle

Why do social insect queens live so long? Approaches to unravel the sociality-aging puzzle

An Organismal Perspective on the Evolution of Insect Societies

Intrinsic survival advantage of social insect queens depends on reproductive activation

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