DNA methylation beta values at 37,488 CpG sites for beluga whales collected in Cook Inlet, Alaska, between 1992 and 2018

• Main Authors: Charles Scott Baker, Eleanor Bors, Paul Wade, Steve Horvath
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Research Workspace
• Subjects: CONTINENT > NORTH AMERICA > UNITED STATES OF AMERICA > ALASKA; OCEAN > PACIFIC OCEAN > NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN; beluga; Delphinapterus leucas; white whale, Beluga, béluga; age and growth; management; conservation; molecular; Cook Inlet; beluga whales; North Pacific Research Board; population dynamics; endangered species; hunting; aging; genomic; methylation; biopsy sample; technology development; Pacific; Beluga; Beluga*; Béluga*; White whale; Alaska
• Online Access: https://search.dataone.org/view/10.24431_rw1k57n_20210108T155900Z

A custom DNA methylation array was used to measure methylation levels at 37,488 cytosine-guanine sites (CpGs) in the beluga genome using a calibration dataset of deceased beluga whales with estimated chronological ages (n=69) using tooth growth layers. Data were generated on a bead array using Illumina Infinium technology. IDAT files (with measures of fluorescence from the iScan machine) were produced and normalized data were uploaded here. Data were normalized using the SeSAMe pipeline (Zhou et al., 2018). Date files are uploaded for (1) the epigenetic clock calibration dataset and (2) a dataset of whales of unkown age, or the "biopsy dataset." The calibration dataset is for whales that have chronological ages derived from tooth growth layer group counts. The biopsy dataset consists of whales of unknown age that are living in Cook Inlet and were sampled by biopsy dart in 2016-2018. All samples were of skin tissue. Data here includes (1) beta values for each sample for each probe on the array and (2) detection p-values describing the confidence in those beta values.