What's the meta-analytic evidence for life-history trade-offs at the genetic level?

Chang et al_ code to deposit: R code necessary to recreate all the results presented in the main manuscript and supplementary note

SData_1_full list.xlsx: Full list of included and excluded papers in the meta-analysis

SData_2_Checklist.csv: PRISMA checklist for meta-analyses

SData_3_data processed full.csv: full dataset of all extracted estimates used in the main manuscript

SData_4_metadata.csv: Meta-data describing the full dataset

ABSTRACT:

Understanding the evolutionary mechanisms underlying the maintenance of individual differences in behavior and physiology is a fundamental goal in ecology and evolution. The Pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis is often invoked to explain the maintenance of such individual differences. This hypothesis predicts that behavioral traits are part of a suite of correlated traits that collectively determine an individual’s propensity to prioritize reproduction or survival. A key assumption of this hypothesis is that these traits are underpinned by genetic trade-offs among life-history traits: genetic variants that increase fertility, reproduction and growth might also reduce lifespan. We performed a systematic literature review and meta-analysis to summarize the evidence for the existence of genetic trade-offs between five key life-history traits: survival, fertility, growth rate, body size, and maturation rate. Counter to our predictions, we found an overall positive genetic correlation between survival and other life-history traits and no evidence for any genetic correlations between the non-survival life-history traits. This finding was generally consistent across pairs of life-history traits, sexes, life stages, lab and field studies, and narrow- vs broad-sense correlation estimates. Our study highlights that genetic trade-offs may not be as common, or at least not as easily quantifiable, in animals as often assumed.