Epigenetic Regulation of Aging in Honeybee Workers
- 30 June 2004
- journal article
- review article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science of Aging Knowledge Environment
- Vol. 2004 (26), pe28-28
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sageke.2004.26.pe28
Abstract
Abstract: Aging and longevity are complex life history traits that are influenced by both genes and environment and exhibit significant phenotypic plasticity in a broad range of organisms. A striking example of this plasticity is seen in social insects, such as ants and bees, where different castes can have very different life spans. In particular, the honeybee worker offers an intriguing example of environmental control on aging rate, because workers are conditionally sterile and display very different aging patterns depending on which temporal caste they belong to (hive bee, forager, or a long-lived caste capable of surviving for several months on honey alone). The ubiquitous yolk protein vitellogenin appears to play a key role in the regulatory circuitry that controls this variation. Here we outline the current understanding of the relation between vitellogenin and somatic maintenance in honeybee workers, and how this relation can be understood in a life history context.Keywords
This publication has 33 references indexed in Scilit:
- Hormonal control of the yolk precursor vitellogenin regulates immune function and longevity in honeybeesExperimental Gerontology, 2004
- From Genes to SocietiesScience of Aging Knowledge Environment, 2004
- The Regulatory Anatomy of Honeybee LifespanJournal of Theoretical Biology, 2002
- Influence of Gene Action Across Different Time Scales on BehaviorScience, 2002
- Survival for Immunity: The Price of Immune System Activation for Bumblebee WorkersScience, 2000
- Worker lipid stores decrease with outside-nest task performance in wasps: Implications for the evolution of age polyethismCellular and Molecular Life Sciences, 1995
- Colony Integration in Honey Bees: Mechanisms of Behavioral ReversionEthology, 1992
- Interadult feeding of jelly in honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) coloniesJournal of Comparative Physiology B, 1991
- The evolution of egg yolk proteinsProgress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, 1989
- Juvenile hormone, vitellogenin and haemocyte composition in winter worker honeybees (Apis mellifera)Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, 1977