Abstract
Understanding underlying genetic variation can elucidate how diversity in behavioral phenotypes evolves and is maintained. Genes in the serotonergic signaling pathway, including the serotonin transporter gene (SERT), are candidates for affecting animal personality, cognition and fitness. In a model species, the great tit (Parus major), we reevaluated previous findings suggesting relationships between SERT polymorphisms, neophobia, exploratory behavior and fitness parameters, and performed a first test of the relationship between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in SERT and problem-solving in birds. We found some evidence for associations between SERT SNPs and neophobia, exploratory behavior and laying date. Furthermore, several SNPs were associated with behavioral patterns and success rates during obstacle removal problem-solving tests performed at nest boxes. In females, minor allele homozygotes (AA) for nonsynonymous SNP226 in exon 1 made fewer incorrect attempts and were more likely to problem-solve. In both sexes, there was some evidence that minor allele homozygotes (CC) for SNP84 in exon 9 were more likely to problem-solve. Only one SNP-behavior relationship was statistically significant after correcting for multiple comparisons, but several were associated with substantial effect sizes. Our study provides a foundation for future research on the genetic basis of behavioral and cognitive variation in wild animal populations.
Highlights
Animal personality is defined by consistent, among individual variation in behavioral traits such as neophobia, exploratory behavior and aggressiveness
Exploratory behavior (r ± SE [95% CI] = 0.581 ± 0.041 [0.319, 0.481], P < 0.001) and novel object neophobia either adjusted (r ± SE [95% CI] = 0.432 ± 0.103 [0.221, 0.609], P < 0.001) or unadjusted (r ± SE [95% CI] = 0.473 ± 0.091 [0.290, 0.635], P < 0.001) for boldness showed statistically significant repeatability
Our study represents a first attempt to characterize associations between problem solving and serotonin transporter gene (SERT) polymorphisms in birds, and we found some evidence for such associations in the case of nonsynonymous SNP226 in exon 1 and synonymous SNP84 in exon 9
Summary
Animal personality is defined by consistent, among individual variation in behavioral traits such as neophobia, exploratory behavior and aggressiveness. Personality traits, including boldness and a ggressiveness[17,18,19,20], and cognitive traits including problem-solving p erformance[21], often differ between urban and rural bird populations Whether these differences are genetic in origin, and which genes might be involved, remains debated[22,23]. There are a number of exciting cases in which specific genes underlying personality and cognitive variation have been identified, via approaches including candidate gene and genome wide association studies. Candidate gene studies in species ranging from humans[24,25,26] to wild great tits[27,28,29] have linked polymorphisms in the dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) gene to personality variation in novelty seeking and exploratory behavior. Different SERT polymorphisms might be responsible for behavioral variation across different populations and behavioral contexts
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