Accurate Epigenetic Aging in Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus), an Essential Step in the Conservation of at-Risk Dolphins.

Ashley Barratclough; Cynthia R. Smith; Forrest M. Gomez; Theoni Photopoulou; Ryan Takeshita; Enrico Pirotta; Len Thomas; Abby M. McClain; Celeste Parry; Joseph A Zoller; Steve Horvath; Lori H Schwacke

doi:10.20944/preprints202107.0075.v1

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Barratclough, A.; Smith, C.R.; Gomez, F.M.; Photopoulou, T.; Takeshita, R.; Pirotta, E.; Thomas, L.; McClain, A.M.; Parry, C.; Zoller, J.A.; Horvath, S.; Schwacke, L.H. Accurate Epigenetic Aging in Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), an Essential Step in the Conservation of at-Risk Dolphins. J. Zool. Bot. Gard. 2021, 2, 416-420. Barratclough, A.; Smith, C.R.; Gomez, F.M.; Photopoulou, T.; Takeshita, R.; Pirotta, E.; Thomas, L.; McClain, A.M.; Parry, C.; Zoller, J.A.; Horvath, S.; Schwacke, L.H. Accurate Epigenetic Aging in Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), an Essential Step in the Conservation of at-Risk Dolphins. J. Zool. Bot. Gard. 2021, 2, 416-420.

Abstract

Epigenetics, specifically DNA methylation, allows for estimation of animal age from blood or remotely sampled skin. This multi tissue epigenetic aging clock uses 110 longitudinal samples from 34 Navy bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), identifying 195 cytosine-phosphate-guanine sites associated with chronological aging via leave-one-individual-out-cross-validation (R2=0.95). With a median absolute error of 2.5 years this clock improves age estimation capacity in wild dolphins, expanding conservation efforts, enabling better understanding of population demographics.

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Accurate Epigenetic Aging in Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus), an Essential Step in the Conservation of at-Risk Dolphins.

Abstract

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Subject

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