Long-term effects of early nutrition and environmental matching on developmental and personality traits in zebra finches

Developmental plasticity is a key feature of many organisms and individuals can benefit from early programming to optimize their phenotypes for the expected environmental conditions. However, environmental conditions may sometimes change unexpectedly. Mismatches between early and adult life, for example, can have important repercussions for adult phenotypes, potentially leading to better performance under matched than mismatched conditions as predicted by the predictive adaptive response hypothesis. We conducted a long-term experimental manipulation of dietary conditions in a population of zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata. Broods were exposed to two early nutritional treatments until independence and we used a split-brood design to independently manipulate nutritional conditions after independence to create matched and mismatched nutritional environments in later life. Developmental trajectories of all individuals were followed for more than 5 years and we scored behavioural responses...发育可塑性（developmental plasticity）是众多生物的关键特征，个体可通过早期程序化获益，以针对预期环境条件优化自身表型。然而，环境条件有时会发生意外变化。早期与成年生命阶段间的环境不匹配，会对成年表型产生重要影响，正如预测性适应反应假说（predictive adaptive response hypothesis）所预测的那样：个体在匹配环境中的表现或优于不匹配环境。我们针对斑胸草雀（Taeniopygia guttata）种群开展了长期的饮食条件实验操控。各窝雏鸟在独立前接受两种早期营养处理；我们采用分窝实验设计（split-brood design），在幼鸟独立后独立操控其营养条件，以在后续生命阶段构建匹配与不匹配的营养环境。我们对所有个体的发育轨迹进行了长达5年以上的追踪，并对其行为反应进行了评分记录……