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| Epigenetics and the role of fear in shaping animal welfare |
| Dave Daversa1,2, Dan Blumstein2, Matteo Pellegrini3, Bree Putman4, Brad Shaffer1,2. 1La Kretz Center for Caliornia Conservation Science, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, United States; 2Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, United States; 3Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, United States; 4Department of Biology, California State University, San Bernardino, San Bernardino, California, United States |
Fear-like behavioural and physiological responses to stressors are well-documented in many species of wild animals, suggesting that fear plays a major role in shaping the subjective experiences of wild animals that ultimately determine their welfare. Yet, empirical evidence for the welfare impacts of fear in wild animals remains sparse, in part because fear effects are likely chronic, manifesting cumulatively over the course of animal lives in ways that are hard to measure. This talk will highlight new research that is developing epigenetic measures of lifelong welfare to evaluate the chronic welfare impacts of fear. DNA methylation (DNAm) is a powerful epigenetic biomarker of aging that also estimates one’s ‘biological’ age that incorporates stress history experienced throughout life. Methods for developing DNAm-based models of lifelong welfare will be discussed, and two current projects using DNAm to measure chronic effects of fear in amphibians and reptiles of Southern California will be outlined. The talk will show how recent advances in epigenetics can be leveraged to develop composite welfare assays that consider the chronic and cumulative effects of fear.��� � |