Abstract
According to theory in life-history and animal personality, individuals with high fitness expectations should be risk-averse, while individuals with low fitness expectations should be more bold. In female house mice, a selfish genetic element, the t haplotype, is associated with increased longevity under natural conditions, representing an appropriate case study to investigate this recent theory empirically. Following theory, females heterozygous for the t haplotype (+/t) are hypothesised to express more reactive personality traits and be more shy, less explorative and less active compared to the shorter-lived homozygous wildtype females (+/+). As males of different haplotype do not differ in survival, no similar pattern is expected. We tested these predictions by quantifying boldness, exploration, activity, and energetic intake in both +/t and +/+ mice. +/t females, unlike +/+ ones, expressed some reactive-like personality traits: +/t females were less active, less prone to form an exploratory routine and tended to ingest less food. Taken together these results suggest that differences in animal personality may contribute to the survival advantage observed in +/t females but fail to provide full empirical support for recent theory.
Highlights
In a wide range of taxa, it has been shown that individuals from the same population differ consistently in their behaviour
Personality Traits The analyses of the influence of the genetic background, sex, and body weight on the personality traits showed that both the t haplotype, sex and their interaction had a significant effect on basic activity (Table 2). +/t females were less active than +/+ females, and females were in general more active than males (Figure 2)
None of the personality traits measured in the boldness and exploration tests were influenced by the genetic background, sex or their interaction (Table 2)
Summary
In a wide range of taxa, it has been shown that individuals from the same population differ consistently in their behaviour. The concept of animal personality applies to behavioural differences that are consistent through time and situations [1,2,3]. Often, these behavioural traits are correlated within or across contexts and are referred to as behavioural syndromes [4,5,6]. Superficial explorers, that evolved high levels of boldness in risky games ( = proactive), invested more in current reproduction. Those that invested more in future reproduction were careful explorers, that evolved low levels of boldness in the same risky games ( = reactive) These models predict that individuals with different fitness expectations express different personality traits, here exploratory behaviour. The authors concluded that individuals with high expectations of future fitness, who have much to lose and for whom life is valuable, should be more cautious than individuals with low expectations
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