Genome-wide methylation drift and transcriptomic variability in aged beagle dogs - WGBS
A total of 24 beagle dogs aged 3 years (n = 8), 5 years (n = 8), and 10 years (n = 8) were investigated for age-related molecular signatures in their methylomes. All dogs were kept at the NIAS under standardized housing conditions that were maintained through continuous monitoring, vaccination, and anthelmintic treatment. The experiment was ethically approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the National Institute of Animal Science (NIAS 2022-586) and Gyeongsang National University (GNU-240802-D0152-01). Whole blood samples were collected using a 21-gauge needle and 5-mL syringe from the jugular vein of each dog. DNA was extracted from whole blood using an Exgene Blood SV mini kit (GeneAll Biotechnology, Seoul, Republic of Korea) according to the manufacturerâ€™s protocol.  Libraries were prepared using the xGen Methyl-Seq Library Prep Kit (Integrated DNA Technologies, Coralville, IA, USA). The input DNA concentration was analyzed using Qubit. A total of 100 ng genomic DNA was fragmented to an estimated size of 350 bp using the S2 Focused Ultrasonicator system (Covaris, Woburn, MA, USA). 