Lifestyle change accelerates epigenetic ageing in King penguins
A growing body of evidence supports the role of nutrient sensing and metabolism pathways in regulating ageing rate and healthspan, but the diversity of human lifestyles challenges our ability to identify the mechanisms of this age acceleration. Here, we examine how the transition of wild King penguins to zoo husbandry can closely mimic the shift to a Western lifestyle in humans, and shed light on conserved epigenetic changes in responses to sedentary conditions. We show that, just like modern humans, zoo-housed male King penguins experience an extended lifespan, but this comes at the cost of accelerated epigenetic ageing throughout life. This accelerated ageing is associated with differential methylation in key growth and maintenance pathways, including the mTOR and PI3K/Akt networks. Our results demonstrate the conserved link between lifestyle and age acceleration. Such evolutionary evidence may help us to improve risk detection and, ultimately, therapeutics for lifestyle-induced age acceleration in humans.
Authors
- Francesco Grande (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6184-6654)
- Flávia A. N. Fernandes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7897-6976)
- Emiliano Trucchi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1270-5273)
- Gaël Bardon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0243-9178)
- Robin Cristofari (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8430-7453)
- Mikaela Hukkanen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8574-8274)
- Sandrine Zahn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9303-4223)
- Leyla R. Davis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0685-0976)
- Britta Meyer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2549-1825)
- Yvon Le Maho (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7547-5540)
- Nils Chr. Stenseth (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1591-5399)
- Céline Le Bohec (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0149-6477)
- Patrick Rampal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3565-7937)
- Richard Heidrich
- Elodie Paciello
- Michel Gauthier-Clerc
- Sören Franzenburg
- Miina Ollikainen
- Maria Elena Figueroa
Institutions
- University of Geneva (CH)
- Marche Polytechnic University (IT)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- University of Helsinki (FI)
- Universität Hamburg (DE)
- École Pratique des Hautes Études (FR)
- University of Oslo (NO)
- Université de Montpellier (FR)
- Helsinki Institute of Physics (FI)
- Centre d'Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive (FR)
- Minerva Foundation (FI)
- Observatorio de la Inmigración de Tenerife (ES)
- Zürich Zoological Garden (CH)
- Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FI)
- Scientific Centre of Monaco (MC)
- Center for Genomic Science (IT)
- Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (FR)
- Université de Strasbourg (FR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2026-03-11
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70527-8
- Primary Topic
- Epigenetics and DNA Methylation
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00