An example of DNA methylation as a means to quantify stress in wildlife using killer whales

Abstract The cumulative effects of non-lethal stressors on the health of biodiversity are a primary concern for conservation, yet difficulties remain regarding their quantification. In mammals, many stressors are processed through a common stress-response pathway, and therefore epigenetic changes in...

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Autores principales:	Carla A. Crossman, Lance G. Barrett-Lennard, Timothy R. Frasier
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/bee911b43061469eb831cdac45dee937
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:bee911b43061469eb831cdac45dee9372021-12-02T17:08:23ZAn example of DNA methylation as a means to quantify stress in wildlife using killer whales10.1038/s41598-021-96255-12045-2322https://doaj.org/article/bee911b43061469eb831cdac45dee9372021-08-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96255-1https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract The cumulative effects of non-lethal stressors on the health of biodiversity are a primary concern for conservation, yet difficulties remain regarding their quantification. In mammals, many stressors are processed through a common stress-response pathway, and therefore epigenetic changes in genes of this pathway may provide a powerful tool for quantifying cumulative effects. As a preliminary assessment of this approach, we investigated epigenetic manifestations of stress in two killer whale populations with different levels of exposure to anthropogenic stressors. We used bisulfite amplicon sequencing to compare patterns of DNA methylation at 25 CpG sites found in three genes involved in stress response and identified large differences in the level of methylation at two sites consistent with differential stress exposure between Northern and Southern Resident killer whale populations. DNA methylation patterns could therefore represent a useful method to assess the cumulative effects of non-lethal stressors in wildlife.Carla A. CrossmanLance G. Barrett-LennardTimothy R. FrasierNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-8 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Carla A. Crossman Lance G. Barrett-Lennard Timothy R. Frasier An example of DNA methylation as a means to quantify stress in wildlife using killer whales
description	Abstract The cumulative effects of non-lethal stressors on the health of biodiversity are a primary concern for conservation, yet difficulties remain regarding their quantification. In mammals, many stressors are processed through a common stress-response pathway, and therefore epigenetic changes in genes of this pathway may provide a powerful tool for quantifying cumulative effects. As a preliminary assessment of this approach, we investigated epigenetic manifestations of stress in two killer whale populations with different levels of exposure to anthropogenic stressors. We used bisulfite amplicon sequencing to compare patterns of DNA methylation at 25 CpG sites found in three genes involved in stress response and identified large differences in the level of methylation at two sites consistent with differential stress exposure between Northern and Southern Resident killer whale populations. DNA methylation patterns could therefore represent a useful method to assess the cumulative effects of non-lethal stressors in wildlife.
format	article
author	Carla A. Crossman Lance G. Barrett-Lennard Timothy R. Frasier
author_facet	Carla A. Crossman Lance G. Barrett-Lennard Timothy R. Frasier
author_sort	Carla A. Crossman
title	An example of DNA methylation as a means to quantify stress in wildlife using killer whales
title_short	An example of DNA methylation as a means to quantify stress in wildlife using killer whales
title_full	An example of DNA methylation as a means to quantify stress in wildlife using killer whales
title_fullStr	An example of DNA methylation as a means to quantify stress in wildlife using killer whales
title_full_unstemmed	An example of DNA methylation as a means to quantify stress in wildlife using killer whales
title_sort	example of dna methylation as a means to quantify stress in wildlife using killer whales
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/bee911b43061469eb831cdac45dee937
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An example of DNA methylation as a means to quantify stress in wildlife using killer whales

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