Abstract
Among-individual correlations between labile traits stem from either shared genetic architectures or developmental processes that shape trait expression. While these correlations have been extensively studied in behavioural ecology over the past two decades, the specific mechanisms driving age-related changes in among-individual trait correlations remain unclear. Given that trait correlations can significantly constrain or facilitate evolutionary trajectories, identifying how these associations—and their underlying genetic basis—evolve with age is essential for accurately predicting evolutionary responses alongside age-specific selection. Here, using field cricket Gryllus bimaculatus males from a pedigreed population, we investigated how age-related changes in (1) genetic and (2) nongenetic bases of among-individual aggression-exploration correlations, as well as (3) survival selection, explain age-related variation in an aggression-exploration correlations. Our findings indicate that the magnitudes of both the positive among-individual and genetic correlations were maintained across nymph and young adult stages, but significantly decreased with age during adulthood. This decrease was due to both survival selection and genetic variation in age-related behavioural plasticity. Survival selection tended to favour less explorative males at the young adult stage, which may have eroded the genetic correlations. In addition, genetic variation in age-related plasticity in exploration contributed to a decrease in the magnitude of genetic correlations during the adult stage. The similarity of age-related changes in among-individual and genetic correlations resulted from the absence of short-term permanent environmental correlations. Therefore, the findings of this study suggest that age-related changes in among-individual behavioural correlations are not caused by a single mechanism, but rather a combination of mechanisms, such as genetic variation in age-related behavioural plasticity and survival selection.
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Data availability
All data are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.29950505.
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Acknowledgements
CSH is supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grants funded by the Korean government (NRF-2022R1C1C1004303, RS-2024-00405751, RS-2025-16067311, RS-2026-25589531 and RS-2025-25442355). CT and ND were funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), grant TU 545/2-1 (CT), DI 1694 5–1 (ND), and DI 1694 1–2 (ND).
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CSH conceived the study, conducted the experiments, analysed the data, and wrote the manuscript; CT conceived the study, conducted the experiments, and wrote the manuscript; ND provided logistics and assisted with data analyses and interpretation and wrote the manuscript.
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Han, C.S., Tuni, C. & Dingemanse, N.J. Selection and genetic variation in age-related plasticity drive the erosion of among-individual behavioural correlations in later life.
Heredity (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41437-026-00884-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41437-026-00884-z
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