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

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 during organismal development, even when personality traits seem to be strongly physiologically or functionally linked in one age group. We outline how such developmental plasticity has important ramifications for understanding the mechanistic basis as well as the evolutionary consequences of behavioural syndromes.与人类群体相仿，动物种群中个体间存在随时间与情境均保持稳定的行为差异，此类差异被认为体现了个体的个性（personality）；而个体所表现出的一系列相关行为集合，则被定义为行为综合征（behavioural syndrome）。行为综合征的终生稳定性，常被研究者以隐含或明确的方式予以假定。本研究采用数量遗传学方法（quantitative genetic approach），针对野生蓝山雀（blue tits）种群的行为综合征发育稳定性展开探究。研究发现：雏鸟中由两种个性性状间强遗传相关性构建而成的行为综合征，在成体阶段消失；本研究同时证实，基因型-年龄互作（genotype–age interaction）是这一发育过程中性状变化的潜在机制。由此可见，即便某一年龄组内的个性性状在生理或功能上存在紧密关联，行为综合征仍可能在个体发育进程中发生改变。我们进一步阐释，这类发育可塑性（developmental plasticity）对于解析行为综合征的机制基础及其演化效应，均具有重要的研究价值。