Transcriptomic response to injury sheds light on the physiological costs of reproduction in ant queens

Molecular Ecology
Katharina von WyschetzkiJürgen Heinze

Abstract

The trade-off between reproduction and longevity is widespread among multicellular organisms. As an important exception, the reproductive females of perennial social insects (ants, honeybees, termites) are simultaneously highly fertile and very long-lived relative to their nonreproductive nestmates. The observation that increased fecundity is not coupled with decreased lifespan suggests that social insect queens do not have to reallocate resources between reproduction and self-maintenance. If queens have to compensate for the costs of reproduction on the level of the individual, the activation of other energy-demanding physiological processes might force them to reduce the production of eggs. To test this hypothesis in ant queens, we increased immunity costs by injury and measured the effect of this treatment on egg-laying rates and genomewide gene expression. Amputation of both middle legs led to a temporary decrease in egg-laying rates and affected the expression of 947 genes corresponding to 9% of the transcriptome. The changes comprised the upregulation of the immune and wound healing response on the one hand, and the downregulation of germ cell development, central nervous system development and learning ability on the oth...Continue Reading

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Citations

Feb 16, 2018·The Journal of Experimental Biology·Francisco DávilaSerge Aron
Jul 14, 2017·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Pierre BlacherAndrew F G Bourke
Aug 10, 2017·Royal Society Open Science·Julia GiehrAlexandra Schrempf
Aug 31, 2018·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Abel BernadouJürgen Heinze
Dec 28, 2018·BMC Evolutionary Biology·Julia Giehr, Jürgen Heinze
Mar 9, 2021·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Jürgen Heinze, Julia Giehr

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