Data from: Comparative transcriptomic analysis of the mechanisms underpinning ageing and fecundity in social insects

Exceptional longevity of social insect queens despite
their lifelong high fecundity remains poorly understood in ageing
biology. To gain insights into the mechanisms that might underlie
ageing in social insects, we compared gene expression patterns
between young and old castes (both queens and workers) across
different lineages of social insects (two termite, two
bee and two ant species). After global analyses, we
paid particular attention to genes of the insulin/insulin-like
growth factor 1 signalling (IIS)/target of rapamycin
(TOR)/juvenile hormone (JH) network, which is well known to
regulate lifespan and the trade-off between reproduction and somatic
maintenance in solitary insects. Our results reveal a major role
of the downstream components and target genes of this
network (e.g. JH signalling, vitellogenins, major royal jelly
proteins and immune genes) in affecting ageing and the
caste-specific physiology of social insects, but an apparently
lesser role of the upstream IIS/TOR signalling components. Together with a
growing appreciation of the importance of such downstream
targets, this leads us to propose the TI–J–LiFe (TOR/IIS–JH–Lifespan and
Fecundity) network as a conceptual framework for understanding the
mechanisms of ageing and fecundity in social insects and beyond.
This article is part of the theme issue ‘Ageing and sociality: why,
when and how does sociality change ageing patterns?’.