Abstract
Age information is fundamental in population biology. In fisheries
management, robust and effective stock assessment models rely on
fecundity and survival rates, and other life history traits that are
generally age specific. Current aging methods for most fish species are
based on the number of otolith growth rings, a time intensive method
that requires lethal sampling and highly specialized expertise. To
supplement current otolith-based aging efforts, here we develop a DNA
methylation approach for aging Atlantic Halibut. We conducted
whole-genome methylation sequencing on 66 wild caught individuals with
otolith-derived age estimates. The resulting 14,588 CpG sites were
evaluated as predictors of age in an elastic net model. We found a
strong positive linear correlation between otolith age and predictions
using a subset of 87 CpG sites selected by the elastic net model that
had a mean absolute error of less than one year. The enzymatic treatment
required for methylation sequencing with short-read technology like
Illumina is still cost-prohibitive for routine application of large
numbers of individuals. Accordingly, we conducted a successful pilot
test to use adaptive nanopore sequencing for rapid, large-scale aging,
and developed a framework to process the data for use in an aging
framework. Our technique can be used to age Atlantic halibut when
non-lethal sampling is needed (e.g., tagging studies) and to supplement
otolith aging data for lethally sampled fish.