Data from: Pervasive indirect genetic effects on behavioral development in polymorphic eastern mosquitofish

The social environment can dramatically influence development and
expression of individual behavior. Indirect genetic effects (IGE) arise
when variation in the social environment depend on genotypic differences
among social partners. Their role in generating variation and in
influencing evolutionary dynamics has become increasingly recognized in
recent years, but less attention has been paid to how indirect genetic
effects arise during development. Here, we measure IGE during development
using a discrete natural polymorphism in male coloration and associated
behaviors in eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki). The experiment
revealed substantial IGE and direct genetic effects on behavior. For some
behaviors, IGE changed and even reversed direction over the 16 weeks of
the experiment, indicating important developmental dynamics. Interaction
between IGE and direct genetic effects for some behaviors indicated that
melanistic males were less responsive to a genetic change in their social
environment than were non-melanistic males, suggesting that melanistic
males were relatively inflexible in their behavior. Alternately, social
partners might vary less in the behavior they direct toward these males.
The color morphs differed in mating behavior and in the amount of
aggressive behavior they received from their social partners, but not in
direct measures of aggression. These results imply that even apparently
innate differences between color morphs in behavior could arise as
indirect effects of differences in behavior of social partners toward
them. Deducing the developmental and social origins of these indirect
effects is necessary to understand the maintenance of morphological and
behavioral polymorphisms in the many species in which they occur.