Costs of reproduction are present but latent in eusocial bumblebee queens.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The standard evolutionary theory of ageing proposes that ageing occurs because of a trade-off between reproduction and longevity. Eusocial insect queens exhibit positive fecundity-longevity associations and so have been suggested to be counter-examples through not expressing costs of reproduction and through remodelling conserved genetic and endocrine networks regulating ageing and reproduction. If so, eusocial evolution from solitary ancestors with negative fecundity-longevity associations must have involved a stage at which costs of reproduction were suppressed and fecundity and longevity became positively associated. Using the bumblebee (Bombus terrestris), we experimentally tested whether queens in annual eusocial insects at an intermediate level of eusocial complexi

SUBMITTER: Collins DH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10334537 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature