My full name is Escherichia coli, but you may call me E.coli for short. I am a bacilli rod shaped, gram negative bacterium. Gram negative bacteria, such as myself, have a special outer membrane which contain lipopolysaccharides, porin channels, and murein lipoprotein. Due to the fact that my membrane contains the endotoxin, lipopolysaccharides, I can be resistant to available antibiotics. After a gram stain, I tend to be a reddish pink color. I can survive without oxygen, therefore, I am an anaerobic microorganism. I am most commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms. This is where I obtain my food, from my host. E.coli obtains carbon through biosynthesis of organic molecules. My main source of carbon comes from glucose. I can also be found in other places, such as the human urinary tract and manure of animals. There are 100 strains of E.coli, most of which are beneficial and necessary for development of the human body, and to remain healthy. However, I do have a pathogenic strain, E.coli 0157:H7, which is in the manure of animals. This can cause diarrhea, kidney damage, and even death, in extreme cases if not properly treated. In fact, the more virulence factors the strain expresses, the more severe of an infection it may cause. Some virulence determinants of pathogenic E.coli are fimbriae, flagella, endotoxins, and other toxins such as Shiga and cytotoxins, and K antigens. My genus is Escherichia, and Enterobacteriaceae is part of my family. Some of my friends in my classification tree are, haemophilus influenzae, pseudomonas aeruginosa, and vibrio cholerae.
