New preprint alert! We conducted a long-term evolution experiment to ask: How do species interactions shape adaptive evolution in microbial biofilms? #biofilm #LTEE
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

1/5

Well, years are years, right? So still a mere 38 years. But the #LTEE is now past 82,000 generations. 🎉

Happy 38th birthday to the #LTEE!
#BOTD in 1988.
Keep on evolving!

#science #evolution #microbiology

Looking for something new to integrate into an #evolution or #microbiology course? Useful for lectures, labs, homework?

Have a look at our STEPS program, which simulates bacterial evolution, including the #LTEE. Easy web-based interface & lab manual w/ exercises to help develop students' intuition.

Lenski and Travisano with LTEE lines in incubator.

Ofria and Travisano, who is holding metal tray containing LTEE populations in their flasks.

Mike Travisano back at MSU to give EEB Distinguished Alumni Lecture on "The major consequences of micro-evolution"

Mike a key player in establishing #LTEE and microbial expt'l evolution more generally. Here we are with LTEE lines in the incubator & Mike holding y'day flasks w/ @ofria.bsky.social

With Jeff Barrick's return to #MSU, the #LTEE was restarted today after a short pause (frozen) for the move.

Today was daily transfer 12,301. With ~6.6 generations per day, they are now at ~82,007 generations.

100,000 generations is fast approaching! Are you ready, #Spartans?

@msumgi.bsky.social

Jeff Barrick smiles at the camera. He is wearing a dark blue suit and blue patterened tie. He has short brown hair.

MGI is thrilled to welcome back Jeff Barrick as a Hannah Distinguished Professor. His arrival is not only a personal homecoming, but also the return of one of the most influential experiments in evolutionary biology: the Long-Term Evolution Experiment. #LTEE

🔗https://tinyurl.com/2s36k7nd

12 tiny worlds Podcast Episode · Unexplainable · 07/30/2025 · 38m

So delighted that the #LTEE landed in my podcast feed today! Great job as always @relenski.bsky.social !

Don’t miss this one!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/u...

Homeword Bound With apologies to Rhymin’ Simon

Homeward Bound! Yes, the #LTEE is homeward bound. After a few thousand generations in Texas, the lines are coming back to #MSU, along with Jeff Barrick, and his team. telliamedrevisited.wordpress.com/2025/07/28/h...

Some random guy talking about evolution 🙊

#NWOlife #LTEE

PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

The evolution of robustness and fragility during long-term bacterial adaptation
#mevoSky #evoSky #evolSky #evolution #ExperimentalEvolution #LTEE

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

happy 37th bithday #LTEE 🎺
#MicroSky

📢📢📢 The FINAL COUNT DOWN for the extended abstract submission deadline of #SMBE2025! Please submit your abstract by 23:59 (GMT +8) of February 15, 2025 [Saturday]! And shout out again for our symposium on Experimental Evolution ! 🎉🎉🎉 @OfficialSMBE
#LTEE #ExperimentalEvolution

Satellite images of Earth features that appear to form the letters LTEE, representing the long-term evolution experiment.

Nice to see that the #LTEE is now visible from #space!

site: landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/apps/YourNam...
h/t: bsky.app/profile/rach...

80,000 Generations: New Olympic Record – The Long-Term Evolution Experiment

A new #Olympics record for the #LTEE!

the-ltee.org/80000-genera...

#science #microbiology #evolution

Delighted to share #MattersMicrobial Episode #46 with all #MicrobialEnthusiasts. A great episode with @NkrumahGrant on his research and path to microbiology. Shout outs to @RELenski and #LTEE. @univpugetsound @ASMicrobiology #MicrobeTV

youtu.be/g8lcklGGbMs?...

LTEE Eclipsed – The Long-Term Evolution Experiment

#LTEE Eclipsed -- better late than never!

the-ltee.org/ltee-eclipsed/

U.S. News & World Report: Earlham recognized for value, teaching excellence Paul Sniegowski Ph.D., a distinguished biologist and the Stephen A. Levin Family Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, will become the 21st president of Earlham C...

Congratulations to evolutionary biologist Paul Sniegowski on being named next president of Earlham College!
earlham.edu/news-events/...

Paul was a postdoc in my lab and, among other work, discovered that some of the #LTEE lines had evolved hypermutability.

#science #education #leadership #change

Belated happy birthday to the #LTEE.
Started 24-Feb-1988.
Evolve cells, evolve!

#science #evolution #bacteria #microsky @barricklab.bsky.social

Long-Term Dynamics of Adaptation in Asexual Populations Even in a constant environment, over 50,000 generations, evolutionary fitness continues to increase in bacterial cultures.

See this paper from 2013, also in Science, for the ongoing adaptive changes in the #LTEE. That work was led by @drmikewiser.bsky.social

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

🧫🧪 🦠🔬 🖥🧬
An awesome (and unfortunately uncommon) story of how a near scoop became a stronger collaborative paper about fitness effects in #LTEE in Science!

And here's a link to a thread about the science and collaboration by Michael Baym (@baym.lol):

twitter.com/baym/status/...

#LTEE #evolution #science #bacteria #microsky #genomics #genetics #adaptation #collaboration

An Update to the Changing Distribution of Fitness Effects About a year and a half ago, I wrote about a pair of papers posted on the bioRxiv preprint website.  Both papers examined the evolution of the distribution of fitness effects (DFE) in the LTEE popula...

New #LTEE paper out in #Science today. I wrote about it here, with an emphasis on "how civility, cooperation, and collaboration can succeed even in the highly competitive world of science."
the-ltee.org/an-update-to...

And here's a link to the paper itself:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Who Moved My Genes? Analyzing Chromosomal Rearrangements in the LTEE There is a quote by Theodosius Dobzhansky that goes: “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” In response, I wish to offer up a corollary: “Nothing in evolution makes s...

Nice post from Ira Zibbu, a visitor in @barricklab.bsky.social working on the #LTEE.

the-ltee.org/who-moved-my...

#biology #genomics #evolution #microbiology #MicroSky

The Long-Term Evolution Experiment Introduction to the Long-Term Evolution Experiment (LTEE) LTEE News Follow LTEE events and media coverage LTEE History View a timeline of LTEE milestones and highlights LTEE Researchers Meet scientist...

Yay, Jeff Barrick (@barricklab.bsky.social) is on Bluesky! Jeff now leads the Long-Term Evolution Experiment with E. coli.

Learn more about the #LTEE here:
the-ltee.org

#evolution #microbiology #genomics #science

Now this looks interesting!
"Promoter capture drives the emergence of proto-genes in Escherichia coli"
uz-Zaman MH , D'Alton S , Barrick JE , Ochman H
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#evolution #innovation #LTEE #bacteria #genetics #genomics #science

Thinking of the scales of time and space, here's a post I wrote some years ago, complete with a question for your consideration: Is the #LTEE smaller on a temporal scale, or on a spatial scale, relative to the history of life on Earth?

telliamedrevisited.wordpress.com/2014/04/02/o...

Big Picture Science podcast on "Going Multicellular"

Molly Bentley @setiinstitute.bsky.social discusses the #LTEE, MuLTEE and more with Jeff Barrick, @wcratcliff.bsky.social, Ben Stanger, and Joe Graves

www.bigpicturescience.org/episodes/goi...

First Post on Bluesky
#Evolution #Biology
#ExperimentalEvolution #LTEE
#Microbes #Bacteria #Viruses
#Science #Microbiology #ScienceCommunication
#ScienceEducation #DEI #ScienceHistory #PhilosophyOfScience
Lots of other stuff, too.

Very impressive study monitoring a defined #microbione in mice over 6-years!! Reveals adapation mechanisms and strain co-existance (sort of a @RELenski type #LTEE with a 12-species community and in-vivo). www.cell.com/cell-host-microbe/fullte...