ArticlePhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2021
Oxidative stress and senescence in social insects: a significant but inconsistent link?
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 32 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 73 citations in OpenAlex.
- Role of Antioxidant Systems and Heat Shock Response in Aquatic Animals Under Multistress Conditions.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Cumulative Soil Metal Contamination Reshapes Oxidative and Neuroenzymatic Stress Responses in Ants Across an Industrial Pollution Gradient.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Evolution of Senescence by Damage Accumulation That Accelerates With Age Throughout an Organism's Lifespan.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Fungal extracts influence lifespan and immune responses in the Carniolan honey bee (Apis mellifera carnica, Pollmann 1879).Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Analysis of Panels of Chemical Biomarkers in the Honeybee in Hemolymph and Fat Body in Response to Physiological and Environmental Factors.Metabolites · 2025Review
- Inter-Caste Comparison Reveals a Unique Bioenergetic Signature in Long-Lived Ant Queens.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Prepupal diapause reduces adult lifespan in the solitary alfalfa leafcutter bee.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Stress in dipteran insects mass-reared for sterile insect technique applications.Insect science · 2025Review
- Insects as Sentinels of Oxidative Stress Induced by Environmental Contaminants: Biomarkers and Analytical Approaches.Toxics · 2025Review
- The antioxidant system was unexpectedly strongly suppressed in apis mellifera worker bees emerged from larvae reared on combs adulterated with paraffin or stearin.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Transgenerational epigenetic effect of kings' aging on offspring's caste fate mediated by sperm DNA methylation in termites.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 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
- Antioxidant Activities in the Hemolymph and Fat Body of Physiologically and Prematurely Aging Bees (Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Worker Survival and Egg Production-But Not Transcriptional Activity-Respond to Queen Number in the Highly Polygynous, Invasive Ant Tapinoma magnum.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Changes in the Activities of Antioxidant Enzymes in the Fat Body and Hemolymph ofAntioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Temperature and spinosad-induced modulation of antioxidant enzyme activity and gene expression of adaptive stress-related genes inOpen veterinary journal · 2025Review
- Convergent Evolution Associated with the Loss of Developmental Diapause May Promote Extended Lifespan in Bees.Genome biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Advancing methods for the biodemography of aging within social contexts.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2023Review
- Social isolation shortens lifespan through oxidative stress in ants.Nature communications · 2023Article
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Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The life-prolonging effects of antioxidants have long entered popular culture, but the scientific community still debates whether free radicals and the resulting oxidative stress negatively affect longevity. Social insects are intriguing models for analysing the relationship between oxidative stress and senescence because life histories differ vastly between long-lived reproductives and the genetically similar but short-lived workers. Here, we present the results of an experiment on the accumulation of oxidative damage to proteins, and a comparative analysis of the expression of 20 selected genes commonly involved in managing oxidative damage, across four species of social insects: a termite, two bees and an ant. Although the source of analysed tissue varied across the four species, our results suggest that oxidative stress is a significant factor in senescence and that its manifestation and antioxidant defenses differ among species, making it difficult to find general patterns. More detailed and controlled investigations on why responses to oxidative stress may differ across social species may lead to a better understanding of the relations between oxidative stress, antioxidants, social life history and senescence. This article is part of the theme issue 'Ageing and sociality: why, when and how does sociality change ageing patterns?'
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