Rank: Species
Lineage: Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Gammaproteobacteria;Enterobacterales;Enterobacteriaceae;Escherichia;Escherichia coli
Description: Escherichia coli. This organism is typically present in the lower intestine of humans, where it is the dominant facultative anaerobe present, but it is only one minor constituent of the complete intestinal microflora. E.coli is easily grown in a laboratory setting and is readily amenable to genetic manipulation making it one of the most studied prokaryotic model organisms. E.coli K-12 is the most widely studied strain of E. coli and serves as a reference for this species. E. coli is also one of the most diverse microbial species, containing both pathogenic and non-pathogenic strains. Pathogenic E. coli can cause urinary tract infections, neonatal meningitis, and many, often severe, intestinal diseases. Pathogenic strains often have virulence factors encoded on extrachromosomal plasmids or within bacteriophages and distinct DNA segments termed pathogenicity islands (PAIs). PAIs are likely to have been transferred horizontally and may even have integrated into the chromosome through bacteriophage or plasmid integration or transposition. These virulence factors have often been transferred from closely related, highly pathogenic, Shigella species. Among other virulence factors, enteroinvasive E. coli share an invasion plasmid with Shigella.Reference strains from the pathogenic E. coli are the urinary tract pathogens Escherichia coli IAI39 and Escherichia coli UMN026, Escherichia coli O157:H7 str. Sakai which causes hemorrhagic colitis, Escherichia coli O83:H1 str. NRG 857C which is implicated in Crohn's Disease, and Escherichia coli O104:H4 str. 2011C-3493 which cause hemolytic uremic syndrome.
Reference Material:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genome/?term=Escherichia+coli
