ArticlePhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2021
Comparative transcriptomic analysis of the mechanisms underpinning ageing and fecundity in social insects.
Article in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 86 citations in OpenAlex.
- Meta-Analysis of Public RNA Sequencing Data Revealed Potential Key Genes Associated with Reproductive Division of Labor in Social Hymenoptera and Termites.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Pooled it
- Co-expression Gene Networks and Machine-learning Algorithms Unveil a Core Genetic Toolkit for Reproductive Division of Labour in Rudimentary Insect Societies.Genome biology and evolution · 2023Pooled it
- Genome Evolution in Social Insects.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Review
- Gene Expression and Alternative Splicing Regulate Phenotypic Plasticity of a Social Wasp.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Cestode infection is linked to transcriptional shifts in neuropeptide signalling and caste-specific ageing pathways in a social insect.BMC genomics · 2026Article
- Unmated Queens Show Worker-Like Behaviour and Gene Expression in Polygynous Colonies of the Ant Stigmatomma pallipes.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Arms races between selfish genetic elements and their host defence in termites.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Age, caste, and social context shape ovarian morphology and transcriptomic profiles in red harvester ants.npj aging · 2025Article
- Fire ant ovary gene expression analyses revealed immune and insulin pathways underlie the reproductive transition from virgin to mated queen.BMC genomics · 2025Article
- Age-resistant worker reproductive potential and effect of helpers on prolonged lifespan in an ant.BMC biology · 2025Article
- Extended longevity of termite kings and queens is accompanied by extranuclear localization of telomerase in somatic organs and caste-specific expression of its isoforms.Insect science · 2025Article
- The origin and maintenance of division of labour in an Indian paper wasp.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- The Molecular Substrates of Insect Eusociality.Annual review of genetics · 2024Review
- A genetic toolkit underlying the queen phenotype in termites with totipotent workers.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- DNA methylation extends lifespan in the bumblebeeProceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Developmental Diet Alters the Fecundity-Longevity Relationship and Age-Related Gene Expression in Drosophila melanogaster.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2023Article
- Signatures of Extreme Longevity: A Perspective from Bivalve Molecular Evolution.Genome biology and evolution · 2023Article
- Unveiling metabolic integration in psyllids and their nutritional endosymbionts through comparative transcriptomics analysis.iScience · 2023Article
- Task-specific odorant receptor expression in worker antennae indicates that sensory filters regulate division of labor in ants.Communications biology · 2023Article
- Advancing methods for the biodemography of aging within social contexts.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
19 authors at 9 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The exceptional longevity of social insect queens despite their lifelong high fecundity remains poorly understood in ageing biology. To gain insights into the mechanisms that might underlie ageing in social insects, we compared gene expression patterns between young and old castes (both queens and workers) across different lineages of social insects (two termite, two bee and two ant species). After global analyses, we paid particular attention to genes of the insulin/insulin-like growth factor 1 signalling (IIS)/target of rapamycin (TOR)/juvenile hormone (JH) network, which is well known to regulate lifespan and the trade-off between reproduction and somatic maintenance in solitary insects. Our results reveal a major role of the downstream components and target genes of this network (e.g. JH signalling, vitellogenins, major royal jelly proteins and immune genes) in affecting ageing and the caste-specific physiology of social insects, but an apparently lesser role of the upstream IIS/TOR signalling components. Together with a growing appreciation of the importance of such downstream targets, this leads us to propose the TI-J-LiFe (
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