A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Quantitative genetics of behavioural reaction norms: genetic correlations between personality and behavioural plasticity vary across stickleback populations




AuthorsDingemanse NJ, Barber I, Wright J, Brommer JE

PublisherWILEY-BLACKWELL

Publication year2012

JournalJournal of Evolutionary Biology

Journal name in sourceJOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY

Journal acronymJ EVOLUTION BIOL

Number in series3

Volume25

Issue3

First page 485

Last page496

Number of pages12

ISSN1010-061X

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1111/j.1420-9101.2011.02439.x(external)


Abstract
Behavioural ecologists have proposed various evolutionary mechanisms as to why different personality types coexist. Our ability to understand the evolutionary trajectories of personality traits requires insights from the quantitative genetics of behavioural reaction norms. We assayed > 1000 pedigreed stickleback for initial exploration behaviour of a novel environment, and subsequent changes in exploration over a few hours, representing their capacity to adjust their behaviour to changes in perceived novelty and risk. We found heritable variation in both the average level of exploration and behavioural plasticity, and population differences in the sign of the genetic correlation between these two reaction norm components. The phenotypic correlation was not a good indicator of the genetic correlation, implying that quantitative genetics are necessary to appropriately evaluate evolutionary hypotheses in cases such as these. Our findings therefore have important implications for future studies concerning the evolution of personality and plasticity.



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