Enhancing epigenetic aging clocks in cetaceans: accurate age estimations in small endangered delphinids, killer whales, pilot whales, belugas, humpbacks, and bowhead whales.

ABSTRACT: This study presents refined epigenetic clocks for cetaceans, building on previous research that estimated ages in several species from bottlenose dolphins to bowhead and humpback whales using cytosine methylation levels. We combined publicly available data (generated on the HorvathMammalMethylChip40 platform) from skin (n = 805) and blood (n = 286) samples across 13 cetacean species, aged 0 to 139 years. By combining methylation data from different sources, we enhanced our sample size, thereby strengthening the statistical validity of our clocks. We used elastic net regression with leave one sample out (LOO) and leave one species out (LOSO) cross validation to produce highly accurate blood only (Median Absolute Error [MAE] = 1.64 years, r = 0.96), skin only (MAE = 2.32 years, r = 0.94) and

SUBMITTER: Zoller JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11791194 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature