Indian jumping ant queens live nine times longer than worker females in the same colony, which may be due to insulin-blocking proteins they produce once they begin reproduction
ant dies naturally, a handful of previously infertile female worker ants vie for her position. As these “pseudoqueens” start producing eggs, their lifespan increases from months to years.
Desplan and his colleagues plucked queen ants from their colonies to create pseudoqueens, which then churned out significantly more insulin than the female worker ants in the colony.ants have two insulin signalling pathways: one that drives egg production, called MAPK, and one that plays a role in ageing, called AKT.
This work “pushes well beyond what we knew before about the biochemistry of insulin signalling in ants”, saysat Harvard University, who wasn’t involved in the research. Chandra says he would still like to see if blocking the AKT pathway extends the lives of worker ants but acknowledges such a study would take years because of the species’ lifespan. “Without doing that, it’s very hard to know whether this actually matters for lifespan,” he says.
Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Stalker killed girl by setting her on fire after she rejected him, Indian police sayIndian police on Tuesday formed a special investigative unit to probe the death of a girl who said she had been set on fire by a stalker whose marriage proposal she rejected, a case that has led to anger in a country where violence against women is rife.
Read more »
Women in Indian village take fight for access to water into their own handsFor Suraj Prajapati, a mother of two who lives in the arid northern Indian state of Rajasthan, fighting for access to clean drinking water at her doorstep required extraordinary measures.
Read more »
How participants are excitedly preparing for Brooklyn's West Indian American Carnival 2022The annual West Indian American Carnival, a tradition since the 1940s, is back. As HannahKliger shows us from Crown Heights, it's a busy, exciting time for thousands of people.
Read more »
Thailand is courting Indian weddingsThailand hopes to boost its tourism revenue by targeting high-spending groups like Indian wedding parties and honeymooners, a senior tourism official said.
Read more »