Among-individual behavioural variation in the ornamental red cherry shrimp, .

Personality variation, defined as among-individual differences in behaviour that are repeatable across time and context, is widely reported across animal taxa. From an evolutionary perspective, characterising the amount and structure of this variation is useful since differences among individuals are the raw material for adaptive behavioural evolution. However, behavioural variation among individuals also has implications for more applied areas of evolution and ecology-from invasion biology to ecotoxicology and selective breeding in captive systems.

Evolutionary genetics of personality in the Trinidadian guppy II: sexual dimorphism and genotype-by-sex interactions.

Sexual dimorphism in behaviour and personality has been identified in a number of species, but few studies have assessed the extent of shared genetic architecture across the sexes. Under sexually antagonistic selection, mechanisms are expected to evolve that reduce evolutionary conflict, resulting in genotype-by-sex (GxS) interactions. Here we assess the extent of sexual dimorphism in four risk-taking behaviour traits in the Trinidadian guppy, Poecilia reticulata, and apply a multivariate approach to test for GxS interactions.

Evolutionary genetics of personality in the Trinidadian guppy I: maternal and additive genetic effects across ontogeny.

Among-individual variation in behaviour is a widespread phenomenon, with several frameworks developed to explain its existence. Maternal effects, which can have significant influence over evolutionary processes, are an understudied source of behavioural variation. Maternal effects are not necessarily static, however, since their importance can change over offspring ontogeny, typically declining with age relative to additive genetic effects.