Preprint Brief Report Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

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
* ORCID logo ,
Len Thomas
* ORCID logo ,
Abby M. McClain
* ORCID logo ,
Celeste Parry
* ,
Joseph A Zoller
* ,
Steve Horvath
* ,
Lori H Schwacke
*
Version 1 : Received: 2 July 2021 / Approved: 5 July 2021 / Online: 5 July 2021 (07:59:15 CEST)

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.

Keywords

DNA methylation; epigenetic aging; bottlenose dolphin; chronological age

Subject

Biology and Life Sciences, Anatomy and Physiology

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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