EPIGENETIC ESTIMATION OF AGE OF THE ANTARCTIC MINKE WHALE

Full paper

A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF EPIGENETIC
ESTIMATION OF AGE OF THE ANTARCTICMINKE WHALE BALAENOPTERA BONAERENSIS
Mutsuo GOTO1*, Toshihide KITAKADO2 and Luis A. PASTENE1
Institute of Cetacean Research, 4 – 5 Toyomi-cho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104 – 0055, Japan*(Corresponding author: goto@cetacean.jp)
2
Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, 4 – 5 – 7 Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108 – 8477, Japan
1

Abstract
Age is one of the most important life history parameters for assessment and management ofmarine living resources. Counting of the growth layers deposited in the earplugs is the mostaccepted technique for determining chronological age of baleen whales. However unreadable
growth layers form in the earplugs of some individual whales. In such cases, alternative methods of age estimation are required. The objective of the present study was to examine the utility of the DNA methylation technique as a proxy to estimate chronological age in the Antarctic
minke whale. For this purpose, skin tissues of a total of 100 Antarctic minke whales sampled
in the Pacific region of the Antarctic by JARPAII surveys were used. Earplug-based age datafrom the same whales were used for calibration purposes. Seven CpG sites in three genes(TET2, CDKN2A and GRIA2) were selected for the analysis. In a previous study, these sites
showed significant correspondence between methylation levels and age in humpback whales.
Methylation levels of the seven CpG sites were scored successfully. Four CpG sites showedsignificant regressions with age, which contrasted with the case of the humpback whale where
all seven sites showed significant regressions with age. The assay predicted age from skinsamples with a standard deviation of 8.865 years. This low precision makes the age estimatedby the CpG methylation technique unsuitable for use in population dynamics models such as
the statistical catch-at-age (SCAA). Furthermore CpGs methylation levels fluctuated among
body positions of the whale, particularly between dorsal (exposure to sunlight) and ventral
sides. The precision of the CpG methylation technique for age estimation could be improvedby increasing the number of CpG sites showing a good correlation with age, and this work is
ongoing. In addition, other factors including variation of CpG methylation levels between different tissues should be examined to further evaluate the utility of the DNA methylation techniques as a proxy of age estimation in baleen whales.
Key words: Antarctic minke whale, age estimation, epigenetics, DNA methylation, proxy of
earplugs.

Introduction

Age is one of the most important life history parameters for assessment and management of marine
living resources. In baleen whales, age has been determined using a variety of methods such as
examination of baleen plates (Nishiwaki, 1951; Zenitani and Kato, 2010), earplugs (Lockyer, 1984)
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GOTO, KITAKADO AND PASTENE

and tympanic bulla (Christensen, 1995). Counting of the growth layers deposited in the earplugs is themost accepted technique for determining chronological age of baleen whales (Lockyer, 1984). Earplugbased age determination has the advantage that it is time- and cost-efficient, and the technique can beused on available historical samples.
The Antarctic minke whale (Balaenoptera bonaerensis) is one of the smallest balaenopterid species,
which is widely distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. This species is considered the most abundantbaleen whale species, with a total abundance estimated at 515,000 (IWC, 2012). During the assessmentof this species, the International Whaling Commission Scientific Committee (IWC SC) successfully
applied statistical catch-at-age (SCAA) analyses. A summary history of the application of SCAA tothis species was presented by Punt (2014), and an assessment of Antarctic minke whales using SCAA
was reported by Punt et al. (2014). Among the most important outputs from the SCAA analyses was
the information on the age-specific natural mortality and the historical trends of the stocks. The key
input data for the SCAA analyses consisted of catches, abundance estimates, length frequency data
and age-at-length data. Age data was obtained from reading earplugs of Antarctic minke whales caught
during past commercial whaling operations and by scientific surveys by the Japanese Whale Research
Program under Special Permit in the Antarctic (JARPA/JARPAII).
While earplug’s growth layers reading is considered the most acceptable technique for age determination in whales, unreadable growth layers form in the earplugs of some individual baleen whales(Maeda et al., 2013; George et al., 1999). In the case of the Antarctic minke whale, determining theage by reading earplugs of immature whales is particularly difficult. In such cases, alternative methodsof age determination are required.
Indices of chronological age of whales have been developed using molecular approaches. These
include length of telomeres (Olsen et al., 2012; 2014), and epigenetic technique based on DNA methylation (Polanowski et al., 2014). Another technique is based on enantiomers of aspartic acid in eyelens, the aspartic acid racemization (AAR) technique, which was successfully applied to Antarctic
minke whales (Yasunaga et al., 2017).
The present study focuses on the estimation of age in Antarctic minke whale based on the epigenetic approach. The best studied class of epigenetic change in vertebrates is the methyl group presenceor absence at the C5 position of Cytosine residues that are adjacent to Guanidine residues (‘CpG
sites’). CpG methylation levels play an important role in the control of gene expression, where higher
methylation levels (‘hypermethylation’) generally reduce gene transcription rate. Methylation changes
at specific CpGs have been linked to age in mice (Maegawa et al., 2010) and humans (Christensen etal., 2009; Gronniger et al., 2010; Bocklandt et al., 2011; Koch and Wagner, 2011; Hannum et al.,2013). It should be noted that the CpG methylation technique does not provide the chronological ageof the individuals but rather a physiological age that can be used as a proxy for chronological age.
The CpG methylation approach was recently applied to known age (from photo-identification studies) humpback whales (Polanowski et al., 2014). These authors assayed 37 cytosines for methylationlevel in humpback whale skin of which seven had significant age-related profiles. They selected thethree most age-information cytosine markers for a humpback whale epigenetic age assay. The assay
had a coefficient of estimation (R2) of 0.787, and predicted age from skin samples with a standard
deviation of 2.991 years.
The objective of the present study was to examine the utility of the CpG methylation technique asa proxy to determine chronological age in the Antarctic minke whale, by using the same three informative cytosine markers of the humpback whale (Polanowski et al., 2014). The ages of the Antarctic
minke whales examined for this epigenetic study were available from earplug’s readings, and thesedata were used for calibration purposes.
Apart from the investigation of informative CpG sites, several other factors should be considered tofurther investigate the utility of the CpG methylation technique for determining age of whales for
population-level analyses (see summary in IWC, 2017). For example, it was suggested there is a need

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EPIGENETIC ESTIMATION OF AGE OF THE ANTARCTIC MINKE WHALE

to better understand the ‘stressors’ (e.g. sunlight) that may affect the calibration of the methylation
approach. A secondary objective of the present study was therefore to investigate changes of the CpG
methylation levels with regard the body positions where the skin samples were obtained, i.e. parts withmore or less exposure to sunlight.

Materials and methods

Whale sampling
Antarctic minke whales used in the present study were caught in the austral summer seasons 2010/11
and 2011/12 in the Pacific sector of the Antarctic comprised of the area between 130°E – 145°W by
surveys of the Second Phase of the Japanese Whale Research Program under Special Permit in the
Antarctic (JARPAII). For the CpG methylation study a total of 100 whales were selected from the total
number of whales caught in the two austral summer seasons. The selection was based on the qualityof their age information from earplugs, information used for calibration purposes. The age determination based on earplugs was conducted by a researcher from the Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR)
following Lockyer (1984). Each individual age was determined by counting growth layers appearing
on the bisected surface of the earplug using a stereoscope microscope, assuming an annual depositionof growth layers (i.e. one pair of dark and pale laminae accumulated per year). For the 100 whales
selected, age information from the earplugs was considered as ‘Excellent’ (very clear Growth LayerGroups (GLGs), and low likelihood of aging reading error) or ‘Good’ (most of the GLGs are clear,and moderate likelihood of aging reading error). Table 1 shows the number of individuals used in thisstudy by sampling season, sex and age classes.
Tissue sampling and DNA extraction
Skin tissue samples were obtained from each of the 100 whales, from the left lateral part of theirbody (sampling position ‘6’ in Fig. 1). Tissue samples were stored in 95% ethanol until DNA extraction. Genomic DNA was extracted from 0.05 g of skin tissues using Gentra Puregene kits (QIAGEN).
Table 1. Sample used in the epigenetic study of Antarctic minke whale, by
austral summer season, sex and age classes. Age data shown in this tablewere obtained by earplug readings, and were used for calibration purposes.
Age

SeasonSex

2010/2011

F

10

16

9

3

M

7

8

8

2

F

1

8

11

6

2011/2012

M
Total

–10

11 – 20 21–30 31–40

41–
3

Total
41
25

1

27

1

3

1

1

1

7

19

35

29

12

5

100

Fig. 1. Whale body positions compared for methylation levels of CpG sites. Additional three positions (8 – 10, not shown) corresponded to injured parts by cookie cutter shark.
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Extracted DNA was stored in TE buffer (10 mM Tris-HCl, 1 mM EDTA, pH 8.0). The IWC guidelines
for DNA data quality (IWC, 2009) were followed as much as possible (see Kanda et al., 2014).
Identification of age-related CpG sites in the Antarctic minke whale
The procedure for identification of age-related CpG sites and measurement of methylation levels in
Antarctic minke whales followed Polanowski et al. (2014), and their explanation of procedures isrepeated below. The following three genes (seven CpG sites) were selected because they showed significant correspondence between CpG methylation levels and age in humpback whales: TET2
(CpG+16, CpG + 21 and CpG + 31 sites); CDKN2A (CpG + 297, CpG + 303 and CpG + 309 sites), and
GRIA2 (CpG + 202 site).
Three candidate regulatory region sequences of Antarctic minke whale (Kishida et al., 2015) weretaken from GenBank and BLAT searches of the humpback whale genome. Where candidate genes had
a clearly orthologous regulatory region in the humpback whale genome, primers for amplification of
Antarctic minke whale sequences were designed by eye based on homologous humpback whale
sequences (Table 2).
Measurement of cytosine methylation levels
Methylation levels in the CpG sites were measured with Qiagen PyroMark assays. The pyrosequencing assays were designed using PYROMARK Assay Design Software (Version 2.0.1, Qiagen). Antarctic minke whale DNA was converted using the Epitect Bisulphite Conversion Kit (Qiagen). The
assay regions were PCR amplified using a biotin-labelled, HPLC-purified primer and standard
sequencing grade primer (Table 2). Amplification reactions consisted of 12.5 μl PYROMARK mastermix, 2.5 μl Coral Load, 1 μl each of 5 μM forward and 5 μM reverse primers, 2 μl of bisulphite
converted template DNA and 6 μl of water. Thermocycling conditions were 15 min at 95°C followedby 45 cycles of 30 s at 95°C, 30 s at 56°C and 30 s at 72°C and a final extension step of 10 min at
72°C. Pyrosequencing was performed on a PYROMARK 24 Pyrosequencing System (Qiagen). The
PYROMARK Q24 software gave percentage methylation values for each CpG site.
Comparison between methylation level of CpG sites and age determined by earplug readings
The methylation levels for each of the seven CpG sites were compared to the ages determined byearplug readings, for n = 100 individuals. Linear regression was used to investigate how much of thevariation in CpG site methylation was explained by age differences. The accuracy and precision of the
Antarctic minke whale epigenetic age assays were assessed with a Leave One Out Cross Validation(LOOCV) (Picard and Cook, 1984) analysis for the seven methylation sites combined.
Table 2. Primers used for amplification of Antarctic minke whale
sequences in the identification of age-related CpG sites by the
PyroMark assay.
Sequence Name

8

Sequence (5’ to 3’)

Gria2_F-Bio

Biotin-GGGTGAGTGTGTGAGTGTA

Gria2_R

AAACCCTATCTCCCAAATCCTAC

Gria2_SQACTAAATACAACTTCCAAC

TET2_F

GTGGTTAAAGTAAATAGAAGGT

TET2_R-Bio

Biotin-CAAAAACACTCCCCAATTTCTET2_SQGGTTAAAGTAAATAGAAGGTG

Cdkn2a_F

AGAGATTTTTGGTAAAGGGGAGAT

Cdkn2a_R-Bio

Biotin-CCCCATATACCTTTCAATCCTCC

Cdkn2a_SQ

TTGGGGAGTTTTTAGAT
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Table 3. Data of Antarctic minke whales examined for variation of
methylation levels among body positions (see Fig. 1).
Whale No.

Sex

Body length (m) Body position (Figure 1)

1

Male

5.61

1 – 7; 8 – 10

2

Female6.56

1 – 7; 8 – 10

3

Male

8.66

1 – 7; 8 – 10

4

Male

8.03

1 – 7; 8 – 10

5

Female9.56

1 – 7; 8 – 10

6

Female9.30

1–7; 8

Table 4. Information of additional sampling positions(8 – 10) that corresponded to parts of the body injured
or with Cookie cutter shark marks. D: dorsal side; L:lateral side; and V: ventral side.
Whale No. Injured parts Cookie cutter shark marks
1

8 (D)

9 (L), 10 (V)2–

8 (D), 9 (V), 10 (L)

3

9 (D)

8 (V), 10 (D)4–

8 (V), 9 (L), 10 (L)5–

8 (L), 9 (L), 10 (L)

6

8 (L)

–

Variation of the methylation levels of CpG sites with body position
Six Antarctic minke whales sampled during the 2016/2017 New Scientific Whale Research Programin the Antarctic Ocean (NEWREP-A) survey in the sector comprised of the area between 45° – 150°E
were used for this experiment. Skin samples were collected from four positions of the dorsal side
(positions 1– 4), two positions of the lateral side (positions 5 – 6), and one position of the ventral side
(position 7) (Fig. 1, Table 3). Also, in the case of five whales (all except whale No. 6 in Table 3),
additional sampling was carried out at three positions (8 – 10) that corresponded to parts of the body
injured or with Cookie cutter shark (Isistius brasiliensis) marks (Table 4). Cookie cutter sharks live inthe depths of all the oceans near the equator. Their top teeth are small, pointy and sharp to grasp holdof the whale or other prey’s skin. Turning in a circle, this shark carves a round chunk of flesh out with
its larger razor-sharp, serrated or saw-like bottom teeth. In a flash, the cookie cutter scoops out themeal. Its preys are left with an almost perfectly round mark that looks like someone used a roundcookie cutter on its body (Compagno, 1984). In the case of whale No. 6, only one additional position
was investigated (position 8; Table 3). In total, 58 skin samples were collected for this experiment.
Tissue preservation, DNA extraction and DNA-M procedures were the same as explained earlier.
Methylation levels of the seven CpG sites in each of the six whales were compared among the seven
body positions shown in Fig. 1.

Results

Identification of age-related epigenetic markers in Antarctic minke whale
The PCR amplifications using a biotin-labelled primer set for the three genes were checked for quality by the agarose gel. The three genes for all individuals were amplified successfully. After pyrosequencing assay, the quality checks by PYROMARK Q24 software were evaluated as high (passed) for
the three genes of all individuals and methylation levels for each CpG site were assessed.
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Comparison between cytosine methylation level and age determined by earplug readings
The regressions of age and methylation levels in each of the seven CpG sites are shown in Fig. 2.
The highest R2 was observed in site TET2_CpG + 31 (0.1874) and the lowest in site CDKN2A_
CpG+297 (< 0.0001). Four CpG sites had a significant regression relationship with age (TET2_
CpG + 16, P = 0.014; TET2_CpG + 21, P = 0.009; TET2_CpG + 31, P = 6.88e-06; and CDKN2A_
CpG + 309, P = 0.005). The other three sites (GRIA2_CpG + 202, CDKN2A_CpG + 297 and
CDKN2A_CpG + 303) had a non-significant regression relationship with age (P > 0.05).
The precision of the Antarctic minke whale epigenetic age assay as assessed by the LOOCV isshown in Fig. 3. The overall precision was estimated as the standard deviation of the mean difference
between known and estimated ages, which was 8.865 years.
Variation of the methylation levels of CpG sites with body position
Fig. 4 shows the variation of the methylation levels of CpG sites at different positions in the whale
body of six individual Antarctic minke whales. This analysis was made for the three genes and sevenCpG sites (excepting some few for which amplification failed). Methylation level of the seven CpG
sites fluctuated with body positions regardless of the body length of the whales. In particular, the three
TET2’s CpG sites showed that the difference between the maximum and the minimum values of methylation levels was 50% or more among body positions. The ratio of maximum and the minimum
methylation level of the TET2’s sites were 2.1 – 3.2 fold in the whale No. 2; 1.3 – 1.7 fold in the whale
No. 5; and 1.6 – 2.4 fold in the whale No. 6 (Table 3; Fig. 4). The average methylation level per indiTET2

TET2

TET2

Fig. 2. Regressions of CpG methylation level and age determined by earplug readings atseven sites selected for Antarctic minke whale. CpG methylation level was measured
at each site by a PyroMark assay in n = 100 whales.

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Fig. 3. The precision of the Antarctic
minke whale epigenetic age assay by a
Leave One Out Cross Validation(LOOCV) analysis for seven CpG methylation sites combined. 95% confidence
limits for age prediction are shown.

Fig. 4. Comparison of CpG methylation levels at multiple body positions in six individual Antarctic minke
whales: ( ) GRIA2_CpG+202, ( ) TET2_CpG+16,( ) TET2_CpG + 21, ( ) TET2_CpG + 31, ( )CDKN2A_CpG+297, ( ) CDKN2A_CpG+303 and( ) CDKN2A_CpG+309. See Figure 1 for explanation of body positions.
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vidual, per TET2’s site was 12.5% in the four dorsal positions, 11.5% in the two lateral positions and7.5% in the ventral position. The three TET2’s sites in three individuals (whales No. 2, 5 and 6)
showed the lowest methylation level in body position seven (ventral side), compared with the otherpositions (Table 3; Fig. 4).
Regarding additional sampling positions (8 – 10) that corresponded to parts of the body with Cookie
cutter shark marks, the average methylation level per individual, per TET2’s site in the whales No. 2
and 5 was 10.2%. This value was lower than the average methylation level in the four dorsal positions
or in the two lateral positions, and higher than in the single ventral position.

Discussion

This study provided a good opportunity to compare the utility of the same CpG sites to determining
age in two baleen whale species. The present study took advantages of a substantial number of Antarctic minke whales for which age had been determined independently by earplug readings. Suchinformation was of great utility for calibration purposes.
As noted earlier chronological age is important for assessment purposes related to the Antarctic
minke whale such as that conducted using SCAA (Punt et al., 2014). Such models require precise
information on the age of individual whales. In this regard the precision of the age estimates by the
CpG methylation approach was low in both humpback (standard deviation of 2.991 years, Polanowski
et al., 2014) and Antarctic minke (standard deviation of 8.865 years) whales. It should be noted that
the LOOCV estimates of standard deviation in both species are not comparable as the analysis in
humpback whales was based on three sites while the Antarctic minke whale analysis was based onseven sites. In any case, the low precision in both cases makes the age estimated by the CpG methylation approach unsuitable for use in population dynamics models such as the SCAA. Kitakado(2016) showed that the precision of methylation-based recruitment in the Antarctic minke whale ismuch worse than that for earplug-based readings, with the methylation-based results hardly better thanthose without any age information at all.
On the other hand the CpG methylation technique does not provide the chronological age of theindividuals but rather a physiological age that can be used as a proxy for chronological age. Thus
physiological and metabolic differences between species, means that the technique will need to becalibrated for each species (IWC, 2016). This study made a contribution in this regard as the performance of the same genetic markers was compared between two different species of baleen whales. In
fact, some differences were observed between the two species in the pattern of methylation levels withrespect to the age. For example in the case of the humpback whale all seven loci showed significant
regression with age while in the case of the Antarctic minke whale only four of those loci showed asignificant regression relationship. Tanabe et al. (2020) concluded that age-related CpGs can differ
even between closely related species, and that it is necessary to find species-specific age-related CpGs
for estimating the age of animals using this technique.
This present study found that CpG methylation levels vary substantially among different parts of the
body from which skin samples were obtained. In particular differences were observed between dorsal(body parts exposed to sunlight) and ventral (body parts not exposed to sunlight). Gronniger et al.
(2010) showed that aging and sun exposure are associated with comparably small, but significant
changes in the DNA methylation patterns of human epidermis and dermis samples. There is a need tobetter understand the ‘stressors’ (e.g. sunlight) that may affect the calibration of the methylation
approach and further studies should be conducted in the future. On the other hand, the effects on
methylation levels of acquired external injures including Cookie cutter shark marks might be minimal
for the Antarctic minke whales.
The screening of a substantial number of CpG sites based on Human BeadChip microarray has

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already started for the Antarctic minke whale, and results will be presented in the near future. Precisionof the CpG methylation technique for age estimation could be improved by increasing the number of
CpG sites showing a good correlation with age.
Apart from increasing the number of CpG sites to increase the precision of the age estimates, otheraspects should be considered to further evaluate the utility of the CpG methylation approach as a proxyof chronological age in baleen whales. For example, correlation between chronological age and methylation profile varies a great deal among different tissues (Horvath, 2013). In addition to skin, biopsy
samples typically include connective tissue and the lipid filled fat cells and these tissues should also
be investigated (Arner et al., 2015). These studies should continue in the future using a large numberof CpG sites and whales.

Acknowledgements

We thank the researchers and crew members that participated in JARPAII and NEWREP-A surveys
for the collection of the genetic samples used in this study. We express our gratitude to T. Bando(Institute of Cetacean Research) for providing age information of Antarctic minke whales used in thisstudy. We also thank M. Taguchi (Institute of Cetacean Research) for her useful suggestions on thisstudy, and H. Oikawa (Institute of Cetacean Research) for his laboratory assistance. Finally, we are
deeply grateful for the fair and constructive reviews of anonymous reviewers.

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Received: October 16, 2019
Accepted: March 10, 2020

© ICR
Photo 1. Antarctic minke whale

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Cetacean Population Studies (CPOPS)
Vol. 2, 2020, 5-14