Exploring the genetics of nestling personality traits in a wild passerine bird: testing the phenotypic gambit.

ABSTRACT: When several personality traits covary, they form a behavioral syndrome. Understanding the evolutionary dynamics of a behavioral syndrome requires knowledge of its genetic underpinning. At present, our understanding of the genetic basis of behavioral syndromes is largely restricted to domestic and laboratory animals. Wild behavioral syndromes are mostly inferred on the basis of phenotypic correlations, and thus make the "phenotypic gambit" of assuming that these phenotypic correlations capture the underlying genetic correlations. On the basis of 3 years of reciprocal cross-fostering of 2896 nestlings of 271 families within a pedigreed population, we show that the nestling personality traits handling aggression, breathing rate, and docility are heritable (h(2) = 16-29%), and often have a pr

SUBMITTER: Brommer JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3538998 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature