Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89557, USA.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2010 Dec 27;365(1560):4013-20. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2010.0129.
Current interest in behavioural syndromes, or 'animal personalities', reinforces a need for behavioural ecologists to adopt a multivariate view of phenotypes. Fortunately, many of the methodological and theoretical issues currently being dealt with by behavioural ecologists within the context of behavioural syndromes have previously been investigated by researchers in other areas of evolutionary ecology. As a result of these previous efforts, behavioural syndrome researchers have considerable theory and a wide range of tools already available to them. Here, we discuss aspects of quantitative genetics useful for understanding the multivariate phenotype as well as the relevance of quantitative genetics to behavioural syndrome research. These methods not only allow the proper characterization of the multivariate behavioural phenotype and genotype-including behaviours within, among and independent of behavioural syndrome structures-but also allow predictions as to how populations may respond to selection on behaviours within syndromes. An application of a quantitative genetics framework to behavioural syndrome research also clarifies and refines the questions that should be asked.
目前，行为综合征（或“动物个性”）引起了人们的关注，这促使行为生态学家采用多变量的表型观点。幸运的是，许多目前行为生态学家在行为综合征背景下处理的方法学和理论问题，以前已经被进化生态学其他领域的研究人员研究过了。由于这些以前的努力，行为综合征研究人员已经有了相当多的理论和广泛的工具可供使用。在这里，我们讨论了对理解多变量表型有用的数量遗传学方面，以及数量遗传学与行为综合征研究的相关性。这些方法不仅允许对多变量行为表型和基因型（包括行为综合征结构内、之间和独立的行为）进行适当的描述，还允许对群体如何对综合征内行为的选择做出预测。将数量遗传学框架应用于行为综合征研究，也可以澄清和完善应该提出的问题。
