The pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis provides a framework for the adaptive integration of behaviour, physiology and life history at between and within species. It suggests that behaviours involving a risk of death or injury should co-vary with a higher allocation to fast reproduction. Empirical support for this hypothesis is mixed, presumably because important influencing factors such as environmental variation, are usually neglected. By experimentally manipulating the food quality of wild mice living under semi-natural conditions for three generations, we show that individuals adjust their life history strategies and risk-taking behaviours as well as trait covariation (N_individuals = 1442). These phenotypic differences are correlated to differences in transcriptomic gene expression of primarily metabolic processes in the liver while no changes in gene frequencies occurred. Our discussion emphasizes the need to integrate the role of environmental conditions and phenotypic plasticity in shaping relationships among behaviour, physiology and life-history in response to changing environmental conditions.

The dataset contains behavioural data (Open Field and Novel Environment) for house mice caught and tested across four generations. Four semi-natural enclosures were run in parallel, each two receiving high-quality food (HQ) and two receiving standard mouse diet (SQ).

In addition, the data contain life history data of individual fecundity rates and generations times for all mice being born within these four generations.

Lastly, the data contain an overview and individual reports for transcriptomic data obtained from each 5 males and 5 females per enclosure per generation.