Pleiotropic effects of juvenile hormone in ant queens and the escape from the reproduction-immunocompetence trade-off
Autor: | William O. H. Hughes, David Treanor, Tobias Pamminger |
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Rok vydání: | 2016 |
Předmět: |
0301 basic medicine
media_common.quotation_subject Longevity Zoology Insect Hierarchy Social Trade-off General Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology 03 medical and health sciences Animals Research Articles General Environmental Science media_common General Immunology and Microbiology biology Ecology Gonadotropic hormones Ants Lasius Reproduction General Medicine biology.organism_classification ANT Juvenile Hormones 030104 developmental biology Juvenile hormone Immunocompetence General Agricultural and Biological Sciences |
Zdroj: | Proceedings. Biological sciences. 283(1822) |
ISSN: | 1471-2954 |
Popis: | The ubiquitous trade-off between survival and costly reproduction is one of the most fundamental constraints governing life-history evolution. In numerous animals, gonadotropic hormones antagonistically suppressing immunocompetence cause this trade-off. The queens of many social insects defy the reproduction–survival trade-off, achieving both an extraordinarily long life and high reproductive output, but how they achieve this is unknown. Here we show experimentally, by integrating quantification of gene expression, physiology and behaviour, that the long-lived queens of the ant Lasius niger have escaped the reproduction–immunocompetence trade-off by decoupling the effects of a key endocrine regulator of fertility and immunocompetence in solitary insects, juvenile hormone (JH). This modification of the regulatory architecture enables queens to sustain a high reproductive output without elevated JH titres and suppressed immunocompetence, providing an escape from the reproduction–immunocompetence trade-off that may contribute to the extraordinary lifespan of many social insect queens. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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