Unconventional Invertebrate models of aging and longevity

University Of Rochester, Rochester NY

Investigators

Abstract

Summary: The goal of the Unconventional Invertebrate Core within the Upstate NY Nathan Shock Center is to develop understudied but extremely promising invertebrate eusocial systems for aging research, as well as provide advice, guidance, and access on these to the wider aging community. Eusocial species represent systems where a subset of individuals reproduce for a larger group of individuals (while others within the group do not reproduce). Due to associated changes in evolutionary pressures, within eusocial systems reproductives benefit from prolonged lifespan while non-reproductives do not. Over long evolutionary periods (~100my) this has resulted in eusocial insect species where reproductives feature lifespans >20 fold longer than non-reproductive individuals within the same closely related families, and thus the product of phenotypic plasticity. Despite this, mechanistic molecular studies, particularly those focused on aging, are very limited, due to limited access, resources, support, and visibility of these systems within the wider geroscience community. The Unconventional Invertebrate Core will focus on expanding current genetic tools, foundational data and testing, and providing access and expert advice to the community. The Core will use three eusocial insect species (two ants and one social wasp) with which they have extensive familiarity, that are also highly complementary for biogerontological studies: the extreme, the plastic, and the manipulated. The ant Camponotus floridanus represent a species with an extreme form of lifespan plasticity where reproductives live >20 years while workers never exceed ~1y of lifespan. The ant Harpegnathos saltator represents a species with adult lifespan plasticity where any individual can be easily induced to gain an >5-fold extension of lifespan (7m to 3y), which is as easily reversed. The wasp Polistes fuscatus represents an independent origin of eusociality from ants that also features much longer-lived reproductives, but also possesses a unique parasite able to manipulate (extend) non-reproductive lifespan while blocking reproduction – thereby providing a contrast that disconnects reproduction from lifespan plasticity. The core directors are equally complimentary: Dr. Lee is an expert in invertebrate aging, and provides an outstanding source of validation in the highly studied C. elegans aging model. Dr. Uy has extensive experience working with the wasp-parasite system and is currently developing it as a novel aging model. Dr. Glastad has a long history of working with and maintaining in-lab both ant species, as well as implementing cutting-edge molecular techniques in each. Thus the core represents a team with unparalleled expertise for accomplishing its Aims which are: (1) advise others interested but less familiar on their use in aging studies, (2) maintain and expand stocks for use within and between NSC cores and to share with the wider research community, (3) develop fundamental genetic and in vitro tools for use in these systems, (4) develop and support in vivo experiments in these systems, (5) generate and share omics data foundational to future biogerontological studies, and (6) evaluate findings in a comparative context using the high-throughput C. elegans system for testing. In short, the Core seeks to develop and proliferate some of the most promising systems for aging studies and is extremely well-suited to do so.