Naked Mole-Rats Just Got Even Wackier; Turns Out The Queen Keeps Her Colony Infertile Through Scent
New research reveals that naked mole-rat queens maintain colony order and suppress the fertility of other females through a specific scent. This discovery sheds light on the complex social structures of these unique, long-lived rodents.
Why it matters
Understanding the biological mechanisms of naked mole-rats provides insights into aging and disease resistance that could eventually inform human medical research.
Add ScienceAlert on Google A naked mole-rat queen – the sole breeder in a colony. (Felix Petermann, Max Delbrück Center) Naked mole-rats are wonderfully strange. First off, they're awesomely cute or terrifyingly ugly, depending on your taste, with furless, wrinkly skin and buck teeth.
Their chirps have accents . They can live without oxygen for up to 18 minutes.
Naked mole-rats ( Heterocephalus glaber ) also have ridiculously high levels of pain resistance . They kidnap each other's young – and enslave them.
But they're probably most famous for their longevity.
Considered a 'non-aging' animal that defies Gompertz's Law , not only have some lived for almost 40 years (about ten times longer than any other rodent), but they show little cognitive decline as they age, and they don't appear to get cancer .
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