- NEWS Q&A
- 14 June 2022
A laboratory has been growing 12 populations of E. coli since 1988 — this year, the cultures will get a new custodian.
- Ewen Callaway
On 24 February 1988, evolutionary biologist Richard Lenski filled 12 flasks with sugary growth medium and seeded each with Escherichia coli bacteria. For the past 34 years, Lenski, at Michigan State University in East Lansing, and his colleagues have nurtured the bacterial cultures, refreshing growth media daily and freezing samples for future study every couple of months.
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Nature 606, 634-635 (2022)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01620-3