Jumping Ant Workers Reverse Lifespan and Caste in Queen's Absence, Desplan Explains
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In a Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Leading Strand lecture, Claude Desplan described a striking case of caste plasticity in Harpegnathos jumping ants. When the queen dies, workers can duel each other to become reproductive gamergates, and the winner's lifespan extends from about 7 months to roughly 4 years, reversibly. The mechanism involves high insulin activating MAPK to promote egg laying, while the ovarian anti-insulin protein Imp-L2 blocks the AKT/FOXO ageing pathway, letting reproduction proceed without accelerated ageing. Queen pheromones normally suppress this worker promotion while the queen is alive. Desplan also noted that ants carry far more olfactory receptors than humans, with a single neuron expressing about 50 receptors. The lecture laid out the molecular logic of this switch; how far it generalises to other social insects remains unaddressed.
Written by a model from the reports · updated 2 hours ago
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- youtube.comDesplan Explains Jumping Ant Caste Plasticity and Lifespan Extension at CSHL Lecture
In a Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Leading Strand lecture, Desplan described how Harpegnathos jumping ant workers can duel their way to becoming reproductive gamergates after the queen dies, extending lifespan from about 7 months to roughly 4 years, reversibly. He explained that high insulin activates MAPK to promote egg laying while the ovarian anti-insulin protein Imp-L2 blocks the AKT/FOXO ageing pathway, and that queen pheromones suppress worker promotion. He also noted ants carry far more olfactory receptors than humans, with a single neuron expressing about 50 receptors.
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