Paternal personality and social status influence offspring activity in zebrafish

Background: Evidence for the transmission of non-genetic information from father to offspring is rapidly accumulating. While the impact of chemical and physical factors such as toxins or diet on the fitness of the parents and their offspring have been studied extensively, the importance of behavioural and social circumstances has only recently been recognised. Behavioural traits such as personality characteristics can be relatively stable, and partly comprise a genetic component but we know little about the non-genetic transmission of plastic behavioural traits from parents to offspring. We investigated the relative effect of personality and of social dominance as indicators at the opposite ends of the plasticity range on offspring behaviour in the zebrafish (Danio rerio). We assessed male boldness, a behavioural trait that has previously been shown previously to possess genetic underpinnings, and experimentally manipulated male social status to assess the association between the two types of behaviour and their correlation with offspring activity. Results: We found a clear interaction between the relatively stable and putative genetic effects based on inherited differences in personality and the experimentally induced epigenetic effects from changes in the social status of the father on offspring activity. Conclusions: Our study shows that offspring behaviour is determined by a combination of paternal personality traits and non-genetic effects derived from the social status of the father.

研究背景：父本向子代传递非遗传信息的相关证据正快速积累。尽管毒素、饮食等理化因素对亲本及其子代适合度的影响已被广泛研究，但行为与社会环境的重要性直至近年才得到学界认可。诸如人格特质等行为性状通常相对稳定，且部分具有遗传基础，但我们对可塑性行为性状从亲本向子代的非遗传传递机制仍知之甚少。本研究以斑马鱼（Danio rerio）为实验对象，选取位于可塑性范围两端的人格特质与社会支配地位作为指标，探究二者对子代行为的相对影响。我们测定了雄性个体的大胆特质（boldness）——这是一种已被证实具有遗传基础的行为性状——并通过实验操控雄性的社会地位，以解析这两类行为之间的关联，以及它们与子代活动水平的相关性。
研究结果：我们发现，基于人格遗传差异的相对稳定的推定遗传效应，与父本社会地位改变所引发的实验诱导表观遗传效应（epigenetic effects），对子代活动水平存在显著交互作用。
研究结论：本研究表明，子代行为由父本人格特质与父本社会地位带来的非遗传效应共同决定。