Data from: Plasticity and evolution in correlated suites of traits

When organisms are faced with new or changing environments, a central challenge is the coordination of adaptive shifts in many different phenotypic traits. The actual relationships among traits may facilitate or constrain evolutionary responses to selection, depending on whether the direction of selection is aligned or opposed to the pattern of trait correlations. Attempts to predict evolutionary potential in correlated traits generally assume that correlations are stable across time and space; however, increasing evidence suggests that this may not be the case, and flexibility in trait correlations could bias evolutionary trajectories. We examined genetic and environmental influences on variation and covariation in a suite of behavioral traits to understand if and how flexibility in trait correlations influences adaptation to novel environments. We tested the role of genetic and environmental influences on behavioral trait correlations by comparing Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) historically adapted to high- and low-predation environments that were reared under native and non-native environmental conditions. Both high- and low-predation fish exhibited increased behavioral variance when reared under non-native versus native environmental conditions, and rearing in the non-native environment shifted the major axis of variation among behaviors. Our findings emphasize that trait correlations observed in one population or environment may not predict correlations in another and that environmentally induced plasticity in correlations may bias behavioral divergence in novel environments.当生物体面临全新或不断变化的环境时，核心挑战之一在于协调多种不同表型性状（phenotypic traits）的适应性转变。性状间的实际关联可能会促进或制约对选择的进化响应，这取决于选择方向与性状关联模式是一致还是相悖。以往针对相关性状进化潜力的预测研究，通常假设性状关联在时间与空间维度上保持稳定；但越来越多的证据显示这一假设并不成立，性状关联的灵活性可能会对进化轨迹造成偏倚影响。我们针对一组行为性状（behavioral traits）的变异与协变模式展开研究，旨在探明性状关联的灵活性是否以及如何影响生物体对新环境的适应性。我们通过对比长期适应高捕食与低捕食环境的特立尼达孔雀鱼（Poecilia reticulata）在原生与非原生环境下的饲养个体，检验了遗传与环境因素对行为性状关联的调控作用。无论是高捕食还是低捕食环境来源的孔雀鱼，在非原生环境下饲养时均表现出较原生环境饲养更高的行为变异度，且非原生环境的饲养条件改变了行为性状间的变异主轴线。本研究结果表明，在某一种群或环境中观测到的性状关联，未必能用于预测另一种群或环境下的关联模式；且环境诱导的关联可塑性，可能会对新环境下的行为分化造成偏倚影响。