Li Yi-Chi, Yen Yi-Chun, Hsu Yuan-Hao, Tso I-Min
Department of Life Science, Tunghai University, Taichung, 40704, Taiwan.
Biodiversity Program, International Graduate Program, Academia Sinica, Taipei, 11529, Taiwan.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 1;15(1):22395. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-01360-0.
Although personality has been popularly studied for decades, the relationship between plasticity and personality remains unclear, and the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms are still not well understood. Here, we addressed this gap by comprehensively integrating field surveys, behavioral tests, transcriptome, and biochemical analyses to study the personality and plasticity of predatory aggressiveness in the wolf spider, Hippasa holmerae. A total of 103 H. holmerae were collected from a field population and their willingness to attack a dangerous East Indian harvest ant prey (Carebara diversa) was each evaluated. We found that nearly half of the individuals exhibited high behavioral plasticity while the others exhibited apparent personality, and results of modeling approach suggests that proactive personality might indeed limit adaptive plasticity. The brains of individuals displaying apparent high or low aggressiveness were subjected to transcriptome analyses. The results showed that 19 physiological systems had more than 20% of their associated genes exhibiting differential expression patterns between the high and low aggressive groups. Furthermore, almost all of these differences were due to genes being significantly upregulated in highly aggressive individuals. Results of biochemical analyses further showed that the concentration of tryptophan in the brains of highly aggressive individuals was significantly lower than that of low aggressive ones. These gene expression and amine variation patterns were consistent with the characteristics of big and small engine individuals proposed by the pace of life syndrome theory and energy management models. Here, we show the personality-plasticity association within a population and empirically demonstrate that personality differences might be caused by the differences in multiple physiological systems. These results highlight the importance of distinguishing personality and plasticity in behavioral tests and the importance of comprehensively examining multiple systems while conducting personality mechanistic studies.
尽管几十年来人们一直在广泛研究个性，但可塑性与个性之间的关系仍不明确，其潜在的神经生理机制也尚未得到充分理解。在这里，我们通过全面整合实地调查、行为测试、转录组和生化分析来填补这一空白，以研究狼蛛（Hippasa holmerae）捕食攻击性的个性和可塑性。我们从一个野外种群中收集了总共103只狼蛛，并分别评估了它们攻击危险的东印度收获蚁猎物（Carebara diversa）的意愿。我们发现，近一半的个体表现出高行为可塑性，而其他个体则表现出明显的个性，建模方法的结果表明，主动型个性可能确实会限制适应性可塑性。对表现出明显高攻击性或低攻击性的个体的大脑进行了转录组分析。结果表明，19个生理系统中有超过20%的相关基因在高攻击性和低攻击性群体之间表现出差异表达模式。此外，几乎所有这些差异都是由于基因在高攻击性个体中显著上调。生化分析结果进一步表明，高攻击性个体大脑中色氨酸的浓度明显低于低攻击性个体。这些基因表达和胺变化模式与生活节奏综合征理论和能量管理模型提出的大发动机和小发动机个体的特征一致。在这里，我们展示了种群内个性与可塑性的关联，并通过实验证明个性差异可能是由多个生理系统的差异引起的。这些结果凸显了在行为测试中区分个性和可塑性的重要性，以及在进行个性机制研究时全面检查多个系统的重要性。
