Ant queens control insulin to increase their lifespan and reproduction

Sep. 2 () –

Queen ants simultaneously stimulate and restrict insulin to extend lifespan and lay eggsin a unique compensation mechanism in the animal world, according to a study published in the journal ‘Science’.

In most of the animal world, the maxim that the more offspring you have the less you will live is true, but the ants bypass the system. The queens (the only individuals in a nest that reproduce) they also live five, 10 and even 30 times longer than their genetically identical worker sisters.

A new study by biologist Hua Yan, from the University of Florida, and his colleagues from New York University, both in the United States, now reveals that the queens of the ants apply a system of double control of insulin, the hormone that controls metabolism and explains much of the relationship between reproduction and lifespan. The queens massively increase their insulin production, which favors the development of the eggs. But your ovaries also produce an insulin blocker that slows down the aging process.

“Hopefully this finding will give us a better understanding of the aging process in many animals.says Yan, an assistant professor of biology at UF who also studies how ants communicate with pheromones to organize their society.

The question of whether mammals, including humans, could benefit from partial blockade of the insulin pathway remains an open question. Caloric restriction, which decreases insulin production, can increase the lifespan of mammals, but impairs reproduction.

They studied the ants ‘Harpegnathos saltator’, also known as Indian jumping ants, due to a useful transformation that ants undergo. When a queen dies the remaining workers they duel to decide which ants will become new pseudoqueens capable of laying eggs. Pseudo-queens gain a longer lifespan, but the process is also reversible if they encounter a true queen. This gave Yan and the research team the perfect system to study how life extension can be turned on and off.

They found that the pseudo-queens produce much more insulin than expected. Insulin helps convert food into energy, and reproduction is an energy-intensive process. “It’s simple, pseudo-queens are reproductive, so they need insulin. But insulin normally shortens life, and yet they have a much longer life, why? Yan ponders. There must be something in ant insulin signaling that differentially regulates reproduction and longevity.”

The research team found this extra layer of control in the form of an insulin blocker, called Imp-L2, which is produced by the pseudo-queen’s newly active ovaries. This insulin blocker slows down the part of the insulin pathway normally responsible for accelerating the aging process, but leaves the part of insulin signaling that enhances reproduction intact.