Epigenetic age estimation of wild mice using faecal samples.

Autor: Hanski E; University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.; University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland., Joseph S; King's College London, London, UK., Raulo A; University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.; University of Turku, Turku, Finland., Wanelik KM; University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.; University of Surrey, Guildford, UK., O'Toole Á; University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK., Knowles SCL; University of Oxford, Oxford, UK., Little TJ; University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Molecular ecology [Mol Ecol] 2024 Apr; Vol. 33 (8), pp. e17330. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Apr 01.
DOI: 10.1111/mec.17330
Abstrakt: Age is a key parameter in population ecology, with a myriad of biological processes changing with age as organisms develop in early life then later senesce. As age is often hard to accurately measure with non-lethal methods, epigenetic methods of age estimation (epigenetic clocks) have become a popular tool in animal ecology and are often developed or calibrated using captive animals of known age. However, studies typically rely on invasive blood or tissue samples, which limit their application in more sensitive or elusive species. Moreover, few studies have directly assessed how methylation patterns and epigenetic age estimates compare across environmental contexts (e.g. captive or laboratory-based vs. wild animals). Here, we built a targeted epigenetic clock from laboratory house mice (strain C57BL/6, Mus musculus) using DNA from non-invasive faecal samples, and then used it to estimate age in a population of wild mice (Mus musculus domesticus) of unknown age. This laboratory mouse-derived epigenetic clock accurately predicted adult wild mice to be older than juveniles and showed that wild mice typically increased in epigenetic age over time, but with wide variation in epigenetic ageing rate among individuals. Our results also suggested that, for a given body mass, wild mice had higher methylation across targeted CpG sites than laboratory mice (and consistently higher epigenetic age estimates as a result), even among the smallest, juvenile mice. This suggests wild and laboratory mice may display different CpG methylation levels from very early in life and indicates caution is needed when developing epigenetic clocks on laboratory animals and applying them in the wild.
(© 2024 The Authors. Molecular Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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