Heydenrych Matthew J, Budd Alyssa M, Mayne Benjamin, Jarman Simon
School of Biological Sciences University of Western Australia Crawley Western Australia Australia.
Environomics Future Science Platform, Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Crawley Western Australia Australia.
Evol Appl. 2024 Jan 10;17(2):e13635. doi: 10.1111/eva.13635. eCollection 2024 Feb.
Age at sexual maturity is a key life history trait that can be used to predict population growth rates and develop life history models. In many wild animal species, the age at sexual maturity is not accurately quantified. This results in a reduced ability to accurately model demography of wild populations. Recent studies have indicated the potential for CpG density within gene promoters to be predictive of other life history traits, specifically maximum lifespan. Here, we have developed a machine learning model using gene promoter CpG density to predict the mean age at sexual maturity in mammalian species. In total, 91 genomes were used to identify 101 unique gene promoters predictive of age at sexual maturity across males and females. We found these gene promoters to be most predictive of age at sexual maturity in females ( = 0.881) compared to males ( = 0.758). The median absolute error rate was also found to be lower in females (0.427 years) compared to males (0.785 years). This model provides a novel method for species-level age at sexual maturity prediction without the need for long-term monitoring. This study also highlights a potential epigenetic mechanism for the onset of sexual maturity, indicating the possibility of using epigenetic biomarkers for this important life history trait.
性成熟年龄是一个关键的生活史特征,可用于预测种群增长率并建立生活史模型。在许多野生动物物种中,性成熟年龄并未得到准确量化。这导致准确模拟野生种群人口统计学的能力下降。最近的研究表明,基因启动子内的CpG密度有可能预测其他生活史特征,特别是最大寿命。在此,我们开发了一种利用基因启动子CpG密度来预测哺乳动物物种性成熟平均年龄的机器学习模型。总共使用了91个基因组来识别101个独特的基因启动子,这些启动子可预测雄性和雌性的性成熟年龄。我们发现,与雄性(r = 0.758)相比,这些基因启动子对雌性性成熟年龄的预测性更强(r = 0.881)。还发现雌性的中位绝对误差率(0.427年)低于雄性(0.785年)。该模型提供了一种无需长期监测即可预测物种水平性成熟年龄的新方法。这项研究还突出了性成熟开始的一种潜在表观遗传机制,表明使用表观遗传生物标志物来研究这一重要生活史特征的可能性。