Meeting Abstract
Individual behavioral variation is ubiquitous across the animal kingdom. Classic quantitative genetics predicts that such phenotypic variation should arise as a result of variation in genetics and the environment. Recent work however challenges this classic paradigm: considerable individual behavioral variation develops even among genetically identical clonal fish raised under identical conditions. This suggests that the traditional theory explaining the presence of individual phenotypic variation is limited by only focusing on what generates this variation but not how. Using the clonal fish, the Amazon molly (Poecilia formosa ), we explored how early life experiences, in particular social experiences can generate feedback mechanisms that ultimately drive the emergence of behavioral individuality even among otherwise identical animals. Using an innovative high-resolution tracking system we followed the behavior of isolated individuals and small sib groups all day, every day, from birth for the first four months of their lives. These data offer unprecedented insight into the trajectories of individual behavioral development allowing us to pinpoint when and how individuals change their behavior in response to social cues.
