title: The influence of mitonuclear genetic variation on personality in seed beetles.
abstract: There is a growing awareness of the influence of mitochondrial genetic variation on life-history phenotypes, particularly via epistatic interactions with nuclear genes. Owing to their direct effect on traits such as metabolic and growth rates, mitonuclear interactions may also affect variation in behavioural types or personalities (i.e. behavioural variation that is consistent within individuals, but differs among individuals). However, this possibility is largely unexplored. We used mitonuclear introgression lines, where three mitochondrial genomes were introgressed into three nuclear genetic backgrounds, to disentangle genetic effects on behavioural variation in a seed beetle. We found within-individual consistency in a suite of activity-related behaviours, providing evidence for variation in personality. Composite measures of overall activity of individuals in behavioural assays were influenced by both nuclear genetic variation and by the interaction between nuclear and mitochondrial genomes. More importantly, the degree of expression of behavioural and life-history phenotypes was correlated and mitonuclear genetic variation affected expression of these concerted phenotypes. These results show that mitonuclear genetic variation affects both behavioural and life-history traits, and they provide novel insights into the maintenance of genetic variation in behaviour and personality.
authors.affiliation: Animal Ecology, Department of Ecology and Genetics, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18D, 75236 Uppsala, Sweden hanne.lovlie@liu.se.
authors.forename: Hanne
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-4352-6275
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Løvlie
authors.affiliation: Animal Ecology, Department of Ecology and Genetics, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18D, 75236 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Elina
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Immonen
authors.affiliation: Animal Ecology, Department of Ecology and Genetics, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18D, 75236 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Emil
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gustavsson
authors.affiliation: Animal Ecology, Department of Ecology and Genetics, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18D, 75236 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Erem
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kazancioğlu
authors.affiliation: Animal Ecology, Department of Ecology and Genetics, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18D, 75236 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Göran
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Arnqvist
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D001517:Coleoptera / Q000235:genetics*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D054629:Genome, Mitochondrial; D005838:Genotype; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010641:Phenotype; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal
keywords: Callosobruchus maculatus; behavioural syndromes; epistasis; mtDNA; thanatosis; tonic immobility