Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Exploring Multifunctional Markers of Biological Age in Farmed Gilthead Sea Bream (Sparus aurata). A Transcriptomic and Epigenetic Interplay for an Improved Fish Welfare Assessment Approach

Version 1 : Received: 14 June 2024 / Approved: 17 June 2024 / Online: 17 June 2024 (08:55:59 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Belenguer, Á.; Naya-Català, F.; Calduch-Giner, J.À.; Pérez-Sánchez, J. Exploring Multifunctional Markers of Biological Age in Farmed Gilthead Sea Bream (Sparus aurata): A Transcriptomic and Epigenetic Interplay for an Improved Fish Welfare Assessment Approach. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25, 9836. Belenguer, Á.; Naya-Català, F.; Calduch-Giner, J.À.; Pérez-Sánchez, J. Exploring Multifunctional Markers of Biological Age in Farmed Gilthead Sea Bream (Sparus aurata): A Transcriptomic and Epigenetic Interplay for an Improved Fish Welfare Assessment Approach. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25, 9836.

Abstract

DNA-methylation clocks inform not only about chronological but also biological age, which brings a high resolution and precise understanding of age-related pathology and physiology. Attempts based on transcriptomic and epigenetic approaches arise as integrative biomarkers linking the quantification of stress response with a given fitness trait and may help to identify biological age markers, also considered welfare indicators. In gilthead sea bream, targeted gene expression and DNA-methylation analyses in white skeletal muscle proved sirt1 as a reliable marker of age-mediated changes of energy metabolism. To complete the list of welfare auditing biomarkers, wide-analyses of gene expression and DNA-methylation in one- and three-year old fish were combined. After discriminant analysis, 668 differentially expressed transcripts were matched with those containing differentially methylated (DM) regions (14,366), and 172 were overlapping. Through enrichment analyses and selection, two sets of genes were retained: 33 showing an opposite trend for DNA-methylation and expression, and 57 down-regulated and hypo-methylated. The first set displayed apparently a more reproducible and reliable pattern and 10 multifunctional genes with DM CpG in regulatory regions (sirt1, smad1, ramp1, psmd2 – up-regulated; col5a1, calcrl, bmp1, thrb, spred2, atp1a2 – down-regulated) were deemed candidate biological age markers for an improved welfare auditing in gilthead sea bream.

Keywords

biological age; chronological age; DNA methylation; epigenetics; transcriptomics; fish welfare

Subject

Biology and Life Sciences, Animal Science, Veterinary Science and Zoology

Comments (0)

We encourage comments and feedback from a broad range of readers. See criteria for comments and our Diversity statement.

Leave a public comment
Send a private comment to the author(s)
* All users must log in before leaving a comment
Views 0
Downloads 0
Comments 0


×
Alerts
Notify me about updates to this article or when a peer-reviewed version is published.
We use cookies on our website to ensure you get the best experience.
Read more about our cookies here.