Combining animal personalities with transcriptomics resolves individual variation within a wild-type zebrafish population and identifies underpinning molecular differences in brain function

Resolving phenotype variation within a population in response to environmental perturbation is central to understanding biological adaptation. Relating meaningful adaptive changes at the level of the transcriptome requires the identification of processes that have a functional significance for the individual. This remains a major objective towards understanding the complex interactions between environmental demand and an individual's capacity to respond to such demands. The interpretation of such interactions and the significance of biological variation between individuals from the same or different populations remain a difficult and under-addressed question. Here, we provide evidence that variation in gene expression between individuals in a zebrafish population can be partially resolved by a priori screening for animal personality and accounts for >9% of observed variation in the brain transcriptome. Proactive and reactive individuals within a wild-type population exhibit consisten...解析种群内个体响应环境扰动的表型变异，是理解生物适应性的核心所在。要将转录组（transcriptome）层面的有意义适应性变化与个体的功能性生物学过程建立关联，需先识别出对个体具有功能重要性的调控途径。这仍是解析环境需求与个体响应这类需求的能力之间复杂互作关系的核心目标。阐释这类互作关系，以及同一或不同种群个体间生物学变异的意义，仍是一个尚未被充分研究的难点问题。本研究证实，通过对斑马鱼种群个体进行动物性格的先验筛选，可部分解析种群内个体间的基因表达差异，该因素可解释大脑转录组中观测到的9%以上的变异。野生型种群中的主动应对型与被动应对型个体展现出稳定的……