Abstract
Naked mole-rats (NMRs) are eusocially organized in colonies. Although breeders carry the additional metabolic load of reproduction, they are extremely long-lived and remain fertile throughout their lifespan. Comparative transcriptome analysis of ten organs from breeders and non-breeders of the eusocial long-lived NMR and the polygynous shorter-lived guinea pig provide comprehensive and unbiased molecular evidence that sexual maturation in NMR is socially suppressed. After transition into breeders, transcriptomes are markedly sex-specific, show pronounced feedback signaling via gonadal steroids and have similarities to reproductive phenotypes in African cichlid fish. Further, NMRs show functional enrichment of status-related expression differences associated with aging. Lipid metabolism and oxidative phosphorylation – molecular networks known to be linked to aging – were identified among most affected gene sets. Further, a transcriptome pattern associated with longevity is reinforced in NMR breeders contradicting the disposable soma theory of aging and potentially contributing to their exceptional long life- and healthspan.
Footnotes
↵2 shared senior authors
Abbreviations
- DEG
- differentially expressed gene
- ED
- expression differences
- FDR
- false discovery rate
- FET
- Fisher’s exact test
- GO
- Gene Ontology
- GP
- guinea pig
- GP-B-FvM
- comparison of GP Breeder Females vs. Males
- GP-F-BvN
- comparison of GP Female Breeders vs. Non-breeders
- GP-M-BvN
- comparison of GP Male Breeders vs. Non-breeders
- GP-N-FvM
- comparison of GP Non-breeder Females vs. Males
- NMR
- naked mole-rat
- NMR-BvN
- comparison of NMR Breeders vs. Non-breeders (both sexes)
- NMR-B-FvM
- comparison of NMR Breeder Females vs. Males
- NMR-F-BvN
- comparison of NMR Female Breeders vs. Non-breeders
- NMR-M-BvN
- comparison of NMR Male Breeders vs. Non-breeders
- NMR-N-FvM
- comparison of NMR Non-breeder Females vs. Males