Biological complexity: how ant queens live so long (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, September 02, 2022, 19:27 (813 days ago) @ David Turell

They block insulin metabolism:

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/insulin-longevity-aging-ant-queens

"Now, researchers have shown how one ant species pulls off this anti-aging feat. When queens and wannabe queens of the species Harpegnathos saltator gear up to reproduce, a part of what’s called the insulin signaling pathway gets blocked, slowing aging, the researchers report in the Sept. 2 Science. That molecular pathway has long been implicated in aging in mammals, including humans.

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"In a rare behavior for ants, when a queen H. saltator dies, some female workers begin competing in duels for the chance to replace her (SN: 1/17/14). These hopeful royals develop ovaries, start laying eggs and transition into queenlike forms called gamergates. When a worker transitions to a gamergate, her life span becomes five times as long as it was. But if she doesn’t end up becoming queen and reverts back to a worker, her life span shortens again.

"The researchers exploited this behavior to investigate the molecular underpinnings of anti-aging in these ants. H. saltator gamergates, it turns out, extend their life spans by taking advantage of a split in the insulin signaling pathway, the chain of chemical reactions that drive insulin’s effects on the body. One branch of this pathway is involved with reproduction, while the other is implicated in aging.

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"Examining patterns of gene activity, Yan and colleagues found that gamergates have more active insulin genes than regular worker ants and, as a result, have increased metabolic activity and ovary development. But the secret sauce protecting the ants from the insulin’s aging effects appears to be a molecule called Imp-L2, which blocks the branch of the insulin pathway linked to aging, experiments showed. The branch involved in reproduction, however, remains active.

“'What we don’t understand is how Imp-L2 can act on one aspect of the pathway and not on the other,” says study coauthor Claude Desplan, a developmental biologist at New York University.

"These results represent a leap forward in our understanding of extreme social insect longevity, the researchers say, while also showcasing an anti-aging evolutionary adaptation that hasn’t been seen in the wild before.

Comment: this new finding reeks of design. How did a naturally advancing evolution find just the right controlling protein to keep these queens alive for such extended periods? Not by chance!!!