Type and morphology
E. coli is a Gram-negative, facultative anaerobe, nonsporulating coliform bacterium. Cells are typically rod-shaped, and are about 2.0 μmlong and 0.25–1.0 μm in diameter, with a cell

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E. coli encompasses an enormous population of bacteria that exhibit a very high degree of both genetic and phenotypic diversity. Genome sequencing of many isolates of E. coli

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The first complete DNA sequence of an E. coli genome (laboratory strain K-12 derivative MG1655) was published in 1997. It is a circular

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Genes in E. coli are usually named in accordance with the uniform nomenclature proposed by Demerec et al. Gene names are 3-letter acronyms that derive from their function

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E. coli belongs to a group of bacteria informally known as coliforms that are found in the gastrointestinal tract of warm-blooded animals. E. coli normally colonizes an infant's gastrointestinal tractwithin 40 hours of birth, arriving with food or water or from the

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Most E. coli strains do not cause disease, naturally living in the gut, but virulent strains can cause gastroenteritis, urinary tract infections, neonatal meningitis, hemorrhagic colitis, and

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Proteome
Several studies have investigated the proteome of E. coli. By 2006, 1,627 (38%) of the 4,237 open reading frames(ORFs) had been identified experimentally. The 4,639,221–base pair sequence of Escherichia coli K-12 is

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