Data for: Fast adjustment of POLS to food quality

The pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis provides a framework for the adaptive
integration of behaviour, physiology and life history at between and
within species. It suggests that behaviours involving a risk of death or
injury should co-vary with a higher allocation to fast reproduction.
Empirical support for this hypothesis is mixed, presumably because
important influencing factors such as environmental variation, are usually
neglected. By experimentally manipulating the food quality of wild mice
living under semi-natural conditions for three generations, we show that
individuals adjust their life history strategies and risk-taking
behaviours as well as trait covariation (Nindividuals = 1442). These
phenotypic differences are correlated to differences in transcriptomic
gene expression of primarily metabolic processes in the liver while no
changes in gene frequencies occurred. Our discussion emphasizes the need
to integrate the role of environmental conditions and phenotypic
plasticity in shaping relationships among behaviour, physiology and
life-history in response to changing environmental conditions.

生活节奏综合征假说（pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis）为物种间及物种内的行为、生理与生活史的适应性整合提供了理论框架。该假说指出，涉及死亡或受伤风险的行为，应与对快速繁殖的更高资源投入呈共变关系。针对该假说的实证支持存在分歧，推测其原因在于环境变异等关键影响因素通常被忽略。本研究通过对半自然环境下饲养的野生小鼠连续三代开展食物质量的实验操控，证实受试个体可调整其生活史策略、冒险行为以及性状共变模式（受试个体数N=1442）。此类表型差异与肝脏中主要参与代谢过程的转录组基因表达差异显著相关，而基因频率未发生任何改变。本研究的讨论部分强调，在响应环境变化的过程中，有必要整合环境条件与表型可塑性在塑造行为、生理与生活史间关联中的作用。