| Literature DB >> 34059764 |
Todd R Robeck1, Zhe Fei2, Ake T Lu3, Amin Haghani3, Eve Jourdain4, Joseph A Zoller2, Caesar Z Li2, Karen J Steinman5, Stacy DiRocco6, Todd Schmitt7, Steve Osborn8, Bill Van Bonn9, Etsuko Katsumata10, June Mergl11, Javier Almunia12, Magdalena Rodriguez13, Martin Haulena14, Christopher Dold15, Steve Horvath16,17.
Abstract
The development of a precise blood or skin tissue DNA Epigenetic Aging Clock for Odontocete (OEAC) would solve current age estimation inaccuracies for wild odontocetes. Therefore, we determined genome-wide DNA methylation profiles using a custom array (HorvathMammalMethyl40) across skin and blood samples (n = 446) from known age animals representing nine odontocete species within 4 phylogenetic families to identify age associated CG dinucleotides (CpGs). The top CpGs were used to create a cross-validated OEAC clock which was highly correlated for individuals (r = 0.94) and for unique species (median r = 0.93). Finally, we applied the OEAC for estimating the age and sex of 22 wild Norwegian killer whales. DNA methylation patterns of age associated CpGs are highly conserved across odontocetes. These similarities allowed us to develop an odontocete epigenetic aging clock (OEAC) which can be used for species conservation efforts by provide a mechanism for estimating the age of free ranging odontocetes from either blood or skin samples.Entities:
Year: 2021 PMID： 34059764 DOI： 10.1038/s42003-021-02179-x
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Commun Biol ISSN： 2399-3642