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- Corynebacterium diphteriae
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Hello everyone! My name is Corynebacterium diphteriae. I am also known as Klebs-Loffler bacillus because I was discovered in 1884 by German bacteriologists Edwin Klebs and Friedrich Loffler My cell wall consists of a thick layer of peptidoglycan which makes me Gram-positive. I do not have a typical cell wall due to the presence of galactose, arabinose, disminopimelic acid and short chain mycolic acids. I `m rod shaped and I do not form spores. I`m also non motile, and use oxygen to breathe which makes an aerobic. I get energy through glycolysis, glucogenesis, pentose phosphate pathway and de novo amino acid biosynthesis. I am pathogenic and I cause a dangerous disease which is called diphtheria. I live in human`s upper respiratory tract, skin and bodily secretions. I also make sure to provide a human with sore throat, swollen neck glands, breathing difficulties and fewer. Diphtheria antitoxin and antibiotics (penicillin or erythromycin) are my enemies because they kill me. Furthermore, vaccination prevents me from entrance into human bodies. I think that people are afraid of me because 77% of children in the USA and 94% of children in the UK were vaccinated in 2006. Due to vaccination it is rare to meet me these days, however back in days I was very popular. For example, in 1920s around 200,000 children had diphtheria each year because of me. Also, I became famous when the daughter of Queen Victoria died of diphtheria after nursing her infected children.
References:
http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Corynebacterium_diphtheriae
http://textbookofbacteriology.net/diphtheria.html
You also can see me in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poK8YMA2RtQ
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