Transfers – The Long-Term Evolution Experiment https://the-ltee.org Observing bacterial evolution in action since 1988 Sat, 29 Nov 2025 22:08:50 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 https://the-ltee.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/cropped-LTEE-Flask-Favicon-32x32.png Transfers – The Long-Term Evolution Experiment https://the-ltee.org 32 32 Return of the coli https://the-ltee.org/return-of-the-coli/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=return-of-the-coli Sat, 29 Nov 2025 22:01:34 +0000 https://the-ltee.org/?p=1634 Read More »Return of the coli]]> As explained in this article, the LTEE is back at Michigan State University after 7,000 generations in Texas. We revived the E. coli and restarted the count-up clock at 82,000 generations on September 10.

‘Evolution under a microscope’ going strong at MSU by Bethany Mauger

Richard Lenski writes in the LTEE notebook on September 10, 2025, the day it continued at Michigan State University. Jeffrey Barrick and Devin Lake look on after having done a share of the transfers. Photo: Finn Gomez

P.S. The sign is viewed backwards in the photo, it is 82,007 from the other side!

Time flies, and Devin Lake just froze down the 82,500-generation samples last week.

Evolve, E. coli, evolve!

]]> The LTEE Leaderboard Goes Live https://the-ltee.org/the-ltee-leaderboard-goes-live/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-ltee-leaderboard-goes-live Sat, 04 Jan 2025 17:36:01 +0000 https://the-ltee.org/?p=1606 12,000 transfers recorded in 13 lab notebooks, we have… Read More »The LTEE Leaderboard Goes Live]]> Over the last 36 years, many researchers have contributed to the LTEE by performing the daily transfers of the 12 E. coli populations. Most of us are curious by nature, and many of us (the author of this post included) can be a bit competitive. With >12,000 transfers recorded in 13 lab notebooks, we have quite the historical record to analyze.

To recognize everyone’s efforts, we’ve created the LTEE Leaderboard! (Follow the link for the interactive version.)

If we zoom out, the most overwhelming signal is that Lenski lab manager Neerja Hajela is the all-time LTEE champion with 4349 transfers. That’s more than 1/3 of all LTEE transfers to date, a feat than is unlikely to ever be equaled! As we can see from the plot over time, Neerja did the transfers on most weekdays from 1996 to 2018.

There were other historical epochs marked by other Lenski lab managers: Lynette Ekunwe (1427 transfers), Sue Simpson (950 transfers), and Devin Lake (838 transfers). So far, only one member of the Barrick lab, Jack Dwenger (407 transfers), cracks the top ten at 7th. The plot also shows some gaps (when the experiment was paused for a move or pandemic) and a plateau (when we allowed populations that were behind to catch up).

We can also use the LTEE Leaderboard to slice and dice the data. For example, what does the leaderboard look like when we restrict it to transfers that were done on the weekend (Saturday or Sunday)?

Longtime LTEE researcher Zack Blount wins this category and we see some new graduate students and postdocs appear in this top 10 list.

You can even use the LTEE Leaderboard to figure out who did a transfer on a specific day in history. Darwin Day (February 12th) in 1993? Ryszard Korona.The Ides of March (March 15th) in 2009? Zack Blount.

Our plan is to continue to periodically update the LTEE Leaderboard, at least once a year when it is time to determine bragging rights for our annual Barrick lab Year in Review group meeting.

P.S. Your humbled-by-his-small-contribution author only clocks in at 26th on the all-time list with 78 transfers.

Data Acknowledgements and Availability

Thanks especially to Zack Blount and Devin Lake for digging through many years of LTEE notebooks and compiling the spreadsheet that made creating the LTEE Leaderboard possible. Code for the LTEE Shiny app and a CSV file of the underlying data are available on GitHub (https://github.com/barricklab/LTEE-leaderboard).

]]> Neither Snow nor Rain nor Heat nor Gloom of Night https://the-ltee.org/neither-snow-nor-rain-nor-heat-nor-gloom-of-night/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=neither-snow-nor-rain-nor-heat-nor-gloom-of-night Wed, 02 Feb 2022 21:12:00 +0000 https://the-ltee.org/?p=1223 We had a lot of snow here, but that didn’t stop Dr. Zachary Blount from making the daily LTEE transfers.  You can follow Zack’s excellent adventure in the pictures below.

Zack is all bundled up at home, as he prepares to head to the lab on foot on this snowy day.
It’s a good thing Zack has boots!
Zack approaches the Beaumont tower on the beautiful MSU campus.
Now Zack is crossing the Rubicon, er, the Red Cedar River on his way to the lab.
Here’s Zack approaching the BPS building, where the LTEE is housed.
This sign in our lab window announces the latest LTEE generational milestone—a great tradition that Zack started years ago.
Zack made it!  This photo shows him transferring one of the LTEE lines, while wearing one of his famous tie-dye lab coats.  I can tell the bacteria in this flask are Cit+ (able to grow on the citrate in the culture medium) because the turbidity is much higher than the lines that can only use the relatively paltry amount of glucose we feed them.
One for the record book! Well, it’s actually one of well over 10,000 daily transfers recorded in the lab notebooks since the LTEE began in February 1988.

Zack always adds something about what makes the date special.  He’s an amazing scientist and scholar!

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