Background
Escherichia coli is one of the most frequent causes of many common bacterial infections, including cholecystitis, bacteremia, cholangitis, urinary tract infection (UTI), and traveler’s diarrhea, and other clinical infections such as neonatal meningitis and pneumonia.
The genus Escherichia is named after Theodor Escherich, who isolated the type species of the genus. Escherichia organisms are gram-negative bacilli that exist singly or in pairs. E coli is facultatively anaerobic with a type of metabolism that is both fermentative and respiratory. They are either nonmotile or motile by peritrichous flagella. E coli is a major facultative inhabitant of the large intestine.