Maladaptive plasticity facilitates evolution of thermal tolerance during an experimental range shift

Background Many organisms are responding to climate change with dramatic range shifts, involving plastic and genetic changes to cope with novel climate regimes found at higher latitudes. Using experimental lineages of the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus , we simulated the initial phase of colonisation to progressively cooler and/or more variable conditions, to investigate how adaptation and phenotypic plasticity contribute to shifts in...