Bugs in the News - What the Heck is an E. coli?

What does E.coli mean?

E. coli is the abbreviated name of the bacterium in the Family Enterobacteriaceae named Escherichia (Genus) coli (Species). Dave Graham in the Department of Microbiology, University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, recently pointed me to information gleaned from G.W. Tannock's book, Normal Microflora,1995, Chapman & Hall, which reveals that approximately 0.1% of the total bacteria within an adult's intestines (on a Western diet) is represented by E. coli. Although, in a newborn infant's intestines E. coli, along with lactobacilli and enterococci represent the most abundant bacterial flora.

In fact, it is for this reason that the organisms which happily inhabit the intestinal tract as normal flora are named enteric bacteria. The Family to which E. coli belongs (Enterobacteriaceae, is named what it is - because of the Greek word enterikos - which pertains to the intestine. The name Escherichia comes from the name of the person Escherich, who in 1885 first isolated and characterized this bacterium...

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