Behaviour as part of a life history: mechanisms and function

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Individual animals vary in their behaviour, but the mechanisms generating this variation and its functional relevance are not properly understood. The necessity to combine both proximate and ultimate questions requires an integrated, interdisciplinary approach. To establish this approach is the motivation for this application. In the common buzzard Buteo buteo, I have shown not only significant overall fitness differences between the three discrete phenotypes but also in important fitness determinants, such as the levels of aggression and parasite load. The phenotypic polymorphism correlates with sequence variation in a candidate gene, the melanocortin-1-receptor (Mc1R) which regulates pigmentation of feathers and which is very likely influenced in its activity by testosterone. Studying these links between genotype, hormones, behaviour, phenotype and fitness could explain fitness consequences of genetic and phenotypic variation in behaviour and life history. I propose to complement the long-term study of buzzards with an experimental study in a well established model system, the zebra finch Taeniopygia guttata. This combination of laboratory and fieldbased approaches offers new opportunities to study the tantalising link from variation in Mc1R and other candidate genes, hormone levels to aggressive and social behaviour and ultimately fitness. Using the outstanding opportunities to house zebra finches in currently unused enclosures within the chair of Animal Behaviour at Bielefeld, I will characterise individual finches in their explorative, aggressive and social behaviour. Their fitness will be measured under different experimental conditions, and behavioural variation will be partitioned into additive genetic variance and environmental effects. In parallel, selection lines will be established for aggression, social behaviour and life history traits. To link behavioural variation to candidate genes, I plan to establish a new behavioural genetics lab and start with Mc1R and other candidate genes, as zebra finches possess both melaninbased signals but also different plumage morphs. As a complementary genetic approach, I will use quantitative trait loci and microarray analyses to identify genomic regions that correlate with the observed behavioural variation. This integrated research framework will lead to the understanding of the mechanisms which generate behavioural variation and the fitness consequences of this variation.