Heritability and social brood effects on personality in juvenile and adult life‐history stages in a wild passerine

Abstract

How has evolution led to the variation in behavioural phenotypes (personalities) in a population? Knowledge of whether personality is heritable, and to what degree it is influenced by the social environment, is crucial to understanding its evolutionary significance, yet few estimates are available from natural populations. We tracked three behavioural traits during different life-history stages in a pedigreed population of wild house sparrows. Using a quantitative genetic approach, we demonstrated heritability in adult exploration, and in nestling activity after accounting for fixed effects, but not in adult boldness. We did not detect maternal effects on any traits, but we did detect a social brood effect on nestling activity. Boldness, exploration and nestling activity in this population did not form a behavioural syndrome, suggesting that selection could act independently on these behavioural traits in this species, although we found no consistent support for phenotypic selection on these traits. Our work shows that repeatable behaviours can vary in their heritability and that social context influences personality traits. Future efforts could separate whether personality traits differ in heritability because they have served specific functional roles in the evolution of the phenotype or because our concept of personality and the stability of behaviour needs to be revised.

Repeatable social network node‐based metrics across populations and contexts in a passerine

“…Previous studies on animal personality have primarily focused on the shy–bold continuum, which mainly quantifies behaviours based on an individual's willingness to take risks (Abbey‐Lee & Dingemanse, 2019; Dingemanse et al, 2004; Dingemanse & Réale, 2004; Smith & Blumstein, 2007). This research has shown that these personality types have a heritable component (Dochtermann & Royauté, 2019; Montiglio et al., 2013; van Oers et al., 2004; Winney et al., 2018). Different animal personality types have associated advantages and disadvantages, such as predator avoidance, access to social information, disease transmission and survival probability (Abbey‐Lee & Dingemanse, 2019; Moiron et al, 2020; Wilson et al., 2013).…”

Heritabilities, social environment effects and genetic correlations of social behaviours in a cooperatively breeding vertebrate

“…Although heritability and genetic correlations of animal “personality” traits (for instance exploration, activity, aggression and docility) have attracted a lot of attention recently (yellow‐bellied marmots, Petelle et al., ; red squirrels, Taylor et al., ; house sparrows, Winney et al., ), studies investigating genetic correlations between social (including cooperative) behaviours are lacking thus far. The present study addresses this by investigating the genetic variation and covariation of social behaviours in the cooperatively breeding cichlid fish Neolamprologus pulcher .…”

“…However, because of the interactive nature of the social domain, an individual's social behavioural phenotype may be influenced by the behaviour of their social partners (Adams, Robinson, Mannarelli, & Hatchwell, 2015;Kasper, Kölliker, et al, 2017;Kasper, Vierbuchen, et al, 2017). Most studies investigate behavioural traits on a purely phenotypic level (but see Taylor et al, 2012;Petelle, Martin, & Blumstein, 2015;Winney et al, 2017;Kölliker, Brinkhof, Heeb, Fitze, & Richner, 2000;Kasper, Kölliker, et al, 2017), assuming that phenotypic patterns of (co)variance truthfully reflect genotypic patterns (Cheverud, 1988;Dochtermann, 2011). However, by assuming that phenotypic patterns reliably predict genetic patterns (i.e.…”

Developmental and genetic effects on behavioral and life‐history traits in a field cricket

“…Traditional traits of interest in eco‐evolutionary studies were typically morphological or life‐history traits; however, considerable attention is currently being paid to questions regarding within‐population variation in behavioral traits (Dingemanse, Kazem, Réale, & Wright, ; Réale, Reader, Sol, McDougall, & Dingemanse, ; Sih, Bell, Johnson, & Ziemba, ; Wolf & Weissing, ) Existing work on quantitative genetics of behavior suggests that behavioral traits are, on average, as heritable as life‐history traits and are subject to varying degrees of selection (Boake, ; Mousseau & Roff, ; Stirling et al, ). Earlier research tended to focus first on mating and sexually selected behaviors (Boake, ), but more studies have recently tested for heritability of behaviors, such as exploration, boldness, and activity, that can systematically lead to differences in how individuals interact with their environment (Ariyomo, Carter, & Watt, ; Bize, Diaz, & Lindström, ; Brommer & Kluen, ; Dingemanse, Both, Drent, Oers, & Noordwijk, ; Niemelä, Dingemanse, Alioravainen, Vainikka, & Kortet, ; van Oers, Drent, Goede, & Noordwijk, ; van Oers & Sinn, ; Patrick, Charmantier, & Weimerskirch, ; Réale, Gallant, Leblanc, & Festa‐Bianchet, ; Sinn, Apiolaza, & Moltschaniwskyj, ; Winney et al, ). Heritability estimates from these studies have been variable, with behaviors not uncommonly having low values or confidence intervals overlapping zero.…”

“…Significant areas of study include identifying the relative importance of genetic and environmental influences on the expression of phenotypes (Falconer & Mackay, 1996;Lynch & Walsh, 1998;Roff, 1997), quantifying the extent to which traits respond to developmental cues (Pigliucci, 2005;West-Eberhard, 2003), and measuring the link between fitness and genetic variation (Mousseau & Roff, 1987;Price & Schluter, 1991;Stirling, Réale, & Roff, 2002). Traditional traits of interest in eco-evolutionary studies were typically morphological Niemelä, Dingemanse, Alioravainen, Vainikka, & Kortet, 2013;van Oers, Drent, Goede, & Noordwijk, 2004;van Oers & Sinn, 2011;Patrick, Charmantier, & Weimerskirch, 2013;Réale, Gallant, Leblanc, & Festa-Bianchet, 2000;Sinn, Apiolaza, & Moltschaniwskyj, 2006;Winney et al, 2018). Heritability estimates from these studies have been variable, with behaviors not uncommonly having low values or confidence intervals overlapping zero.…”