Epigenetic clocks of biological age and the intergenerational consequences of ageing in the Seychelles warbler

这个令人兴奋的新项目将调查父母的生物年龄对后代健康和适应在塞舌尔莺的影响。大多数动物都有衰老的个体差异（晚年生理功能和表现的退化）。重要的是，这种衰老也可能影响不同年龄父母所生后代的健康和质量。然而，父母在怀孕时的生理年龄（一个人的生理机能反映的年龄，而不是他们的实际年龄）应该用来调查这种代际影响——这一点在研究中被大量忽视了！我们对塞舌尔莺的一个孤岛种群进行了长期监测，在那里对所有个体及其后代进行了一生的测量和采样，这为研究父母衰老的影响提供了一个独特的机会，而没有自然条件或医疗干预的混淆问题。已经掌握了100个人的样本和健康、生殖和生存数据，但实地工作将扩大这一数据。先前的研究证实，在这个种群中，衰老的个体差异存在，父母的实际年龄影响后代的健康。重要的是，一项初步研究表明，反映莺生物年龄的表观时钟可以通过DNA甲基化测量产生。因此，这个群体为一项优秀的、突破性的研究提供了资源。

This exciting novel project will investigate the effects of parental biological age on offspring health and fitness in the Seychelles warbler.Individual variation in ageing (the deterioration of physiological function and performance in later life) occurs within most animals. Importantly, this ageing may also impact the health and quality of offspring produced by parents of different ages. However, parental biological age at conception (the age an individual's functionality reflects, not their chronological age), should be used to investigate such intergenerational effects - a point that has been massively overlooked in studies!Our long-term monitoring of an isolated island population of Seychelles warblers, where all individuals, and their offspring, are measured and sampled throughout their lives, provides a unique opportunity to study the impact of parental ageing without the confounding issues of unnatural conditions or medical interventions. Samples and health, reproduction and survival data on 100's of individuals are already held, but fieldwork will extend this data. Previous work confirms that individual variation in ageing occurs in this population and that parental chronological age impacts offspring fitness. Importantly, a pilot study shows that epigentic clocks that reflect biological age in the warbler can be generated from measures of DNA methylation. This population therefore provides the resources for an excellent, ground-breaking study.