Mechanistic aspects of extraordinary longevity of termite kings and queens

Reproductives of advanced social insects are often very long-lived when compared with their sterile nestmates as well as with their solitary insect relatives: they can live for up to two decades, which makes them record holders in longevity among insects. This project aims at the proximate physiological mechanisms allowing for long life and a simultaneous high fecundity of termite kings and queens. More specifically, the project targets a renowned mechanism of somatic maintenance by the action of telomerase, a ribonucleoprotein responsible for prolongation of telomeric ends of linear chromosomes. In order to fully characterise the transcript and protein sequence of the catalytic subunit telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) in our model termite Prorhinotermes simplex (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae), including their eventual alternative variants, we performed RNA sequencing of various worker somatic tissues and germinal and somatic tissues of reproductive casts.