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Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
The production of offspring involves costs for the own body. Therefore, in many animal species a high reproductive success at a young age is associated with a shortened lifespan. Queens of social insects such as ants, bees, wasps, and termites are an exception: they live very long lives and are highly productive until the end of their days, so they do not seem to age. Part of the mystery of how they do this has now been solved in the publication "Late-life fitness gains and reproductive death in Cardiocondyla obscurior ants", produced by a DFG-funded research group (FOR2281 Sociality and the reversal of the fecundity/longevity trade off).
Luisa María Jaimes Niño, first author and PhD candidate in the PD Dr. Jan Oettler’s group at Universität Regensburg, followed the productivity and lifespan of 99 queen ants of the species Cardiocondyla obscurior. The research team was able to show that the ants pursue a reproductive strategy that differs from that of other animal species. "We refer to this strategy as 'continuusparity' because it is characterized by consistent, lifelong reproduction and a fitness maximum at the end of life in the form of increased production of sexual offspring (new queens, males)," explains Dr. Oettler. The queens did not reach their maximum reproductive success until late in life, regardless of how many offspring they produced in total and how long they lived. Thus, natural selection on reproductive capacity works to the end of life, resulting in no sign of senescence in queens of social insects, despite being highly productive and long-lived.
PD Dr Jan Oettler
Fakultät für Biologie und Vorklinische Medizin
Universität Regensburg
Phone: +49(0)941 943-2996
Email: jan.oettler@ur.de
Luisa Maria Jaimes-Nino, Jürgen Heinze, Jan Oettler: Late-life fitness gains and reproductive death in Cardiocondyla obscurior ants. eLife 2022;11:e74695
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.74695
Cardiocondyla obscurior ant queen
Matti Leponiemi
Criteria of this press release:
Journalists
Biology
transregional, national
Research results
English
Cardiocondyla obscurior ant queen
Matti Leponiemi
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