Data from: Behavioural mediators of genetic life-history trade-offs: a test of the pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis in field crickets

The pace-of-life syndrome (POLS) hypothesis predicts associations between life-history and ‘risky’ behaviours. Individuals with ‘fast’ lifestyles should develop faster, reproduce earlier, exhibit more risk-prone behaviour, and die sooner than those with ‘slow’ lifestyles. While support for POLS has been equivocal to date, studies have relied on individual-level (phenotypic) patterns in which genetic trade-offs may be masked by environmental effects on phenotypes. We estimated genetic correlations between life-history (development, lifespan, size) and risky behaviours (exploration, aggression) in a pedigreed population of Mediterranean field crickets (Gryllus bimaculatus). Path analyses showed that behaviours mediated some genetic relationships between life-history traits, though not those involved in trade-offs. Thus, while specific predictions of POLS-theory were not supported, genetic integration of behaviour and life-history was present. This implies a major role for risky behaviours in life-history evolution.

生活节奏综合征（pace-of-life syndrome, POLS）假说可预测生活史与“冒险行为”之间的关联。相较于“慢节奏”生活史的个体，“快节奏”生活史的个体理应发育更快、繁殖更早、表现出更多冒险行为且寿命更短。迄今为止，尽管已有相关研究对POLS假说提供了一定支持，但相关结论始终模棱两可；且过往研究均依赖个体水平（表型层面）的分析范式，在此类分析中，遗传权衡可能会被环境对表型产生的效应所掩盖。本研究在一个有系谱的地中海田蟋蟀（Gryllus bimaculatus）种群中，估算了生活史性状（发育、寿命、体型）与冒险行为（探索行为、攻击性）之间的遗传相关。路径分析结果显示，行为介导了部分生活史性状间的遗传关联，但并未涉及与权衡关系相关的遗传关联。因此，尽管POLS理论的特定预测未得到实证支持，但行为与生活史之间确实存在遗传整合。这表明冒险行为在生活史演化过程中扮演着关键角色。