Dear MARMAM community, My co-authors and I are happy to announce the online publication of the following paper:
Martien, K.K., R.W. Baird, K.M. Robertson, M.A. Kratofil, S.D. Mahaffy, K.I. West, S.J. Chivers, and F.I. Archer (2026). Epigenetic age estimation for Hawaiian false killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens) in the absence of ‘known-age’ individuals. Molecular Ecology Resources, 26:e70099. Abstract: Epigenetic aging models hold great promise for enhancing many aspects of wildlife research and management. However, their utility is limited by the need to train models using known-aged animals, which are rare among wildlife species. We present a novel approach to developing methylation-based age prediction models that enables us to train models using samples from individuals whose chronological age is estimated with uncertainty based on photo-identification catalog data. Our approach incorporates this uncertainty into model training by representing the age of each individual with a probability distribution rather than a point estimate. We similarly represent the methylation profiles of individuals as binomial distributions and produce a distribution of predicted age for each sample that reflects the uncertainty in both its age and methylation profile. We compared age models trained using a wide range of parameterizations, training data sets, and analytical methods to determine how well they predicted the catalog-based age estimates. The resulting model has a median absolute error of 1.70 years, outperforming many published clocks trained with known-age samples. This approach significantly expands the range of species for which accurate methylation-based age models can be developed, particularly those of conservation concern where known-age samples are limited. By producing distributions of predicted age, it also enables researchers to accurately communicate the uncertainty in their age estimates to subsequent data users. The paper is Open Access at Molecular Ecology Resources and can be downloaded at https://doi.org/10.1111/1755-0998.70099. If you have any trouble accessing the PDF, please contact Karen Martien ( [email protected]). -- Karen K. Martien, Ph.D. Southwest Fisheries Science Center 8901 La Jolla Shores Dr. La Jolla, CA 92037, USA 858-546-7058 [email protected] http://swfsc.noaa.gov/mmtd-mmgenetics *I sometimes work irregular hours, but I respect your work schedule and do not expect an action or reply outside of your working hours.*
_______________________________________________ MARMAM mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/marmam
