Campylobacter coli
A Microbial Biorealm page on the genus Campylobacter coli
Classification
Higher order taxa
Bacteria; Proteobacteria; Epsilonproteobacteria; Campylobacterales; Campylobacteraceae; Campylobacter
Species
Campylobacter coli
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NCBI: Taxonomy |
Description and significance
Campylobacter coli (C. coli) is one of the many specie found in class epsilonproteobacteria. It is a gram-negative S-shaped curved, somewhat rod-shaped cell, about 0.2-0.5 micrometers long, contains a single polar flagellum at one end, and usually lives in the intestinal tract of animal.[1] The bacteria colonizes the intestinal epithelium to a point that it breaks out from the epithelial layer and spread into the bloodstream.[2] C. coli is very similar to its bacteria relative, campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni), in which both causes inflammation of the intestine and causes diarrhea in infected animals and human. Most human infections, about 85% to 95%, involve C. jejuni, while C. coli is responsible for the majority of the remainder.[1] There has been many studies and research for finding treaments to this disease, one of which is the use of antimicrobial chemotherapy for patients with severe infection. Erythromycin, fluoroquinolones, and tetracycline were found to be the best antimicrobial drugs.[4]C.coli are usually isolated from pigs, birds and surface water either by classical or molecular methods, including 16S rDNA shotgun sequencing and polymerase chain reactions to differentiate between C.coli and C.jejuni.[3]
Genome structure
C. coli is found to have a cicular DNA, consisting of 1,860,666 nucleotides long and contains 2033 genes, in which 1967 of those are protein coding. It also contains 58 different structures of RNAs.[2] Plasmids isolated from C. coli were found to be cryptic and contained multiple, novel incompatibility groups. Three small, cryptic plasmids from C. Coli strands code named pCC2228-1, pCC2228-2, pCC2228-3 were sequenced. pCC2228-1 replicate by a rolling-circle mechanism and pCC2228-2 is a theta-replicating, iteron-containing plasmid (ICP). C. coli vectors are small in size, it doesn't have many common multiple-cloning site restriction sites, and incompatibility groups are not present.[5]
Cell structure and metabolism
C. coli is a gram-negative, S-shaped bacteria which are characterized as being difficult to deal with, microaerophilic, and require high levels of carbon dioxide for growth. C. coli is very versatile and has a complete citric acid cycle, including a complex respiratory chain which allows both aerobic and anaerobic respiration. These characteristics allow it to live and survive in a number of environments including the intestine. Anaerobic respiration is very important for growth in the intestinal tract and since C. coli is microaerophilic, it would have to be in an environment that contains 5-15% oxygen and 5-15% carbon dioxide. It requires a complex media to be cultured and always need extra growth medium such as glutamate, glutamine, alpha-ketoglutarate, or formate. Because C. coli genome is relatively small, it needs many transport systems for the delivery of essential amino acids, nutrients and ions from the external environment. The major carbon sources used for growth are carbohydrates and amino acids. [6,7,8]
Ecology, Pathology, and Application to Biotechnology
Current Research
References
Edited by Nhan Le of Rachel Larsen
