A strong genetic correlation underlying a behavioural syndrome disappears during development because of genotype-age interactions.

ABSTRACT: In animal populations, as in humans, behavioural differences between individuals that are consistent over time and across contexts are considered to reflect personality, and suites of correlated behaviours expressed by individuals are known as behavioural syndromes. Lifelong stability of behavioural syndromes is often assumed, either implicitly or explicitly. Here, we use a quantitative genetic approach to study the developmental stability of a behavioural syndrome in a wild population of blue tits. We find that a behavioural syndrome formed by a strong genetic correlation of two personality traits in nestlings disappears in adults, and we demonstrate that genotype-age interaction is the likely mechanism underlying this change during development. A behavioural syndrome may hence change dur

SUBMITTER: Class B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4590434 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature