{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]],"date-time":"2026-09-09T16:06:17Z","timestamp":1788969977648,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":26,"publisher":"The Royal Society","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]],"date-time":"2026-09-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788912000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Australian Institute of Marine Science and AIMS@JCU"},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100008344","name":"Australian Institute of Marine Science","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100008344","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001792","name":"James Cook University","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001792","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>Accurate and reliable ageing tools are essential for wildlife conservation and management. While DNA methylation has emerged as a promising tool for age estimation in vertebrates, its application to invertebrates remains contested and has been limited to arthropods. Here, we develop an epigenetic clock for the Pacific crown-of-thorns seastar (CoTS; Acanthaster cf. solaris), a destructive coral predator contributing to habitat degradation across Indo-Pacific reefs. Using Oxford Nanopore Technologies, we generated whole-genome DNA methylation profiles across five age groups and identified 1910 CpG sites with methylation patterns significantly associated with age. We then fitted age prediction models using elastic net regression and evaluated predictive performance with leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV), achieving a mean absolute error of 0.31 \u00b1 0.22 years, corresponding to 4\u20136% of the CoTS lifespan (5\u20138 years). This accuracy suggests the potential to differentiate annual cohorts, supporting future management-relevant inference. To facilitate practical implementation, we constructed an optimized epigenetic clock from 14 CpG sites consistently selected across LOOCV iterations. Our results demonstrate that DNA methylation-based age estimation is feasible in a deuterostome invertebrate, extending epigenetic ageing approaches beyond arthropods and establishing their potential to advance age determination and management in invertebrates that lack reliable ageing methods.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1098\/rsbl.2026.0265","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]],"date-time":"2026-09-09T00:15:03Z","timestamp":1788912903000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["DNA methylation-based ageing in a deuterostome invertebrate: an epigenetic clock for the crown-of-thorns seastar (\n                    <i>Acanthaster<\/i>\n                    cf.\n                    <i>solaris<\/i>\n                    )"],"prefix":"10.1098","volume":"22","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0933-9313","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sarah L. T.","family":"Kwong","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Australian Institute of Marine Science 1 , PMB 3 Townsville MC, Townsville, Queensland, Australia"},{"name":"College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University 2 , Townsville, Queensland, Australia"},{"name":"Centre for Tropical Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology, James Cook University 3 , Townsville, Queensland, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2372-7603","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alyssa Maree","family":"Budd","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University 2 , Townsville, Queensland, Australia"},{"name":"Centre for Tropical Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology, James Cook University 3 , Townsville, Queensland, Australia"},{"name":"Environomics Future Science Platform, Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation 5 , Perth, Western Australia, Australia"},{"name":"School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University 6 , Perth, Western Australia, Australia"},{"name":"UWA Oceans Institute, The University of Western Australia 7 , Perth, Western Australia, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9665-2123","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maria","family":"Gomez-Cabrera","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Australian Institute of Marine Science 1 , PMB 3 Townsville MC, Townsville, Queensland, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0000-6809-1859","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Julia Y.-H.","family":"Hung","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University 2 , Townsville, Queensland, Australia"},{"name":"Centre for Tropical Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology, James Cook University 3 , Townsville, Queensland, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1862-8459","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Morgan S.","family":"Pratchett","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University 2 , Townsville, Queensland, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1060-5447","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Cecilia","family":"Villacorta-Rath","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Tropical Water and Aquatic Ecosystem Research (TropWATER), James Cook University 4 , Townsville, Queensland, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3476-6595","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sven","family":"Uthicke","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Australian Institute of Marine Science 1 , PMB 3 Townsville MC, Townsville, Queensland, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"175","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"2026090911062722900_RSBL20260265C1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"821","DOI":"10.2307\/3802534","article-title":"On the use of demographic models of population viability in endangered species management","author":"Beissinger","year":"1998","journal-title":"J. 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Genet."},{"key":"2026090911062722900_RSBL20260265C11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e70026","DOI":"10.1111\/1755-0998.70026","article-title":"Methylome profiling of a deuterostome invertebrate using Oxford Nanopore Technology (ONT)","volume":"25","author":"Kwong","year":"2025","journal-title":"Mol. Ecol. Resour."},{"key":"2026090911062722900_RSBL20260265C12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"41","DOI":"10.3390\/d9040041","article-title":"Thirty years of research on crown-of-thorns starfish (1986\u20132016): scientific advances and emerging opportunities","volume":"9","author":"Pratchett","year":"2017","journal-title":"Divers"},{"key":"2026090911062722900_RSBL20260265C13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e2424560122","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2424560122","article-title":"eDNA confirms lower trophic interactions help to modulate population outbreaks of the notorious crown-of-thorns sea star","volume":"122","author":"Wolfe","year":"2025","journal-title":"Proc. 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NCBI Sequence Read Archive","author":"Kwong","year":"2026"},{"key":"2026090911062722900_RSBL20260265C25","article-title":"sarahkwong\/cots_clock: CoTS epigenetic clock (Version v1.0)","volume-title":"Zenodo","author":"Kwong","year":"2026"},{"key":"2026090911062722900_RSBL20260265C26","article-title":"Supplementary material from: DNA methylation-based ageing in a deuterostome invertebrate: an epigenetic clock for the crown-of-thorns seastar (Acanthastercf. solaris)","volume-title":"Figshare","author":"Kwong","year":"2026"}],"container-title":["Biology Letters"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/royalsocietypublishing.org\/rsbl\/article-pdf\/doi\/10.1098\/rsbl.2026.0265\/6164190\/rsbl.2026.0265.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"syndication"},{"URL":"https:\/\/royalsocietypublishing.org\/rsbl\/article-pdf\/doi\/10.1098\/rsbl.2026.0265\/6164190\/rsbl.2026.0265.pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]],"date-time":"2026-09-09T15:06:34Z","timestamp":1788966394000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/royalsocietypublishing.org\/rsbl\/article\/22\/9\/20260265\/483163\/DNA-methylation-based-ageing-in-a-deuterostome"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]]},"references-count":26,"journal-issue":{"issue":"9","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1098\/rsbl.2026.0265","relation":{},"ISSN":["1744-9561","1744-957X"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1744-9561","type":"print"},{"value":"1744-957X","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]]},"article-number":"20260265"}}