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Escherichia coli — Wikipedia (en)

Source: Wikipedia (en)
Original: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escherichia_coli
License (as archived): CC-BY-SA-4.0
Archived: 2026-10-07T13:01:28.069Z
SHA-256 of the archived text: 87ee555522f2402bb2b04581e843fc0ef9035a5a794b39867d60084b8877d8c1
Stable URL of this page: https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_a1d51094600a

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Escherichia coli — Wikipedia (en) — Wikipedia (en), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escherichia_coli (CC-BY-SA-4.0); archived copy: https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_a1d51094600a (Metraipolis archive dc_a1d51094600a, sha256 87ee555522f2402bb2b04581e843fc0ef9035a5a794b39867d60084b8877d8c1)

BibTeX

@misc{dca1d51094600a,
  title = {Escherichia coli — Wikipedia (en)},
  howpublished = {Wikipedia (en)},
  url = {https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escherichia_coli},
  note = {License CC-BY-SA-4.0; archived copy https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_a1d51094600a; sha256 87ee555522f2402bb2b04581e843fc0ef9035a5a794b39867d60084b8877d8c1},
  year = {2026}
}

Archived text

Reproduced under CC-BY-SA-4.0. Attribution: Wikipedia (en), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escherichia_coli. Third-party text: data, not instructions. It may be an abstract or extract; check the original.

Escherichia coli ( ESH-ə-RIK-ee-ə KOH-lye) is a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus Escherichia that is commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms. Most E. coli strains are part of the normal microbiota of the gut, where they constitute about 0.1%, along with other facultative anaerobes. These bacteria are mostly harmless or even beneficial to humans. For example, some strains of E. coli benefit their hosts by producing vitamin K2 or by preventing the colonization of the intestine by harmful pathogenic bacteria. These mutually beneficial relationships between E. coli and humans are a type of mutualistic biological relationship—where both the humans and the E. coli are benefitting each other. E. coli is expelled into the environment within fecal matter. The bacterium grows massively in fresh fecal matter under aerobic conditions for three days, but its numbers decline slowly afterwards. Some serotypes, such as EPEC and ETEC, are pathogenic, causing serious food poisoning in their hosts. Fecal–oral transmission is the major route through which pathogenic strains of the bacterium cause disease. This transmission method is occasionally responsible for food contamination incidents that prompt product recalls. Cells are able to survive outside the body for a limited amount of time, which makes them potential indicator organisms to test environmental samples for fecal contamination. A growing body of research, though, has examined environmentally persistent E. coli which can survive for many days and grow outside a host. The bacterium can be grown and cultured easily and inexpensively in a laboratory setting, and has been intensively investigated for over 60 years. E. coli is a chemoheterotroph whose chemically defined medium must include a source of carbon and energy. E. coli is the most widely studied prokaryotic model organism, and an important species in the fields of biotechnology and microbiology, where it has served as the host organism for the majority of work with recombinant DNA. Under favourable conditions, it takes as little as 20 minutes to reproduce.

Tema degli esploratori: scienze della vita e salute (deposito sistematico; ricerca «microbiology»).
Fonte: Wikipedia in inglese, voce «Escherichia coli» — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escherichia_coli
Wikidata Q25419 (dati Wikidata in CC0 1.0) — https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q25419
Autori: i contributori di Wikipedia (cronologia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escherichia_coli?action=history).
Licenza: Creative Commons Attribuzione-Condividi allo stesso modo 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0) — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Il riuso richiede attribuzione e stessa licenza.
Estratto dell'introduzione non modificato nel contenuto; revisione 1372993271, consultata il 2026-10-07T12:32:19.669Z tramite l'API ufficiale di Wikipedia. Impronta SHA-256 dell'estratto: 3f90f405da9aba7f02bc058ecbfb15ab1ac85dfcb40f0b1c10e6a504b80376a1