Data from: Genetic correlations among developmental and contextual behavioral plasticity in Drosophila melanogaster

Correlations among traits, including behaviors, are important because traits that are genetically correlated may not evolve independently. Recently, behavioral correlations research has expanded to include correlations not only in mean-level behaviors, but also in behavioral plasticity, i.e., the degree to which individuals change their behavior in response to environmental stimuli. Positive correlations among behavioral plasticities would imply that individuals or genotypes that are behaviorally plastic in one way may also be plastic in other ways; negative correlations could imply tradeoffs. Here, we examine aversive odor conditioning (learning) at two time points, and plasticity in pupation site selection behavior across substrates, in a panel of Drosophila genotypes. These behaviors represent different types of behavioral plasticity: contextual plasticity describes behavioral responses to stimuli that are currently present, while developmental plasticity describes behavioral responses to remembered experiences with stimuli in the recent past. We find that learning scores and plasticity in pupation site selection behavior are positively genetically correlated, representing the first example of a genetic correlation between developmental and contextual plasticity. These findings imply that ecological and evolutionary theories focusing on variation in a single dimension of behavioral plasticity may be incomplete.包括行为性状在内的各类性状间的关联至关重要，这是因为受遗传关联的性状其演化过程并非独立进行。近年来，行为关联的研究范畴已得到拓展，不仅涵盖平均水平行为间的关联，还纳入了行为可塑性（behavioral plasticity）层面的关联——行为可塑性指个体依据环境刺激调整自身行为的程度。行为可塑性之间的正相关表明，在某一维度具备行为可塑性的个体或基因型，在其他维度同样可能表现出可塑性；负相关则可能意味着存在进化权衡（tradeoff）。本研究针对一组果蝇（Drosophila）基因型品系，检测了两个时间节点下的厌恶性嗅觉条件反射（aversive odor conditioning，即学习过程），以及不同基质条件下化蛹位点选择行为的可塑性。上述两类行为分属不同类型的行为可塑性：情境可塑性（contextual plasticity）指个体对当前存在的刺激所做出的行为响应，而发育可塑性（developmental plasticity）则指个体对近期经历过的刺激所产生的行为响应。本研究发现，学习得分与化蛹位点选择行为的可塑性之间存在正向遗传关联，这是发育可塑性与情境可塑性之间存在遗传关联的首个实例。上述研究结果提示，仅聚焦于单一维度行为可塑性变异的生态学与进化理论，可能并不完备。