Wasps show us how to live longer

Death, where is thy sting?  For the wasp, death—and ageing—can be delayed, and it’s a trick that perhaps we too can learn.

The larvae of the jewel wasp can pause their development, live longer and age more slowly, researchers from the University of Leicester have discovered.

It’s all to do with biological pathways, and the researchers think that we could harness the technique and extend our own lifespan.

The jewel wasp (Ampulex compressa, or emerald cockroach)—with its distinctive metallic colouring—has a similar DNA to humans, and has a short lifespan that makes it ideal for study.

The researchers exposed jewel wasp mothers to cold and darkness, which triggered a hibernation-like state in the larvae called diapause. This natural “pause button” extended the offsprings’ adult lifespan by over a third. Even more remarkably, the wasps that had gone through diapause aged 29 percent more slowly at the molecular level than their counterparts. Their epigenetic clocks ticked more leisurely, offering the first direct evidence that the pace of biological aging can be developmentally tuned in an invertebrate.

“It’s like the wasps who took a break early in life came back with extra time in the bank.  It shows that aging isn’t set in stone, it can be slowed by the environment, even before adulthood begins,” said Eamonn Mallon, senior author on the study.

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