Explain the Escherichia - Characteristics of Bacteria?
It belongs to order Enterobacteriales. It is the best-studied organism present in the colon of humans and other warm-blooded animals. It is commonly employed in research and used as indicator in analysis of water and food for faecal contamination.
Escherichia is gram negative, non-sporulating straight rod, if motile peritrichously flagellated. These are facultative anaerobes, oxidase negative and have simple nutritional requirement. These carry out mixed acid fermentation. Escherichia sp. may play a nutritional role in intestine by synthesizing vitamins and also help in making large intestine anoxic. Usually Escherichia is not pathogenic, but some Escherichia sp. cause gastroenteritis, urinary tract diseases and also serious food borne diseases. Do you recall reading about E. coli O157:H7? This can cause serious form of illness.