Escherichia albertii
1. Classification
a. Higher order taxa
Domain; Phylum; Class; Order; Family; Genus Include this section if your Wiki page focuses on a specific taxon/group of organisms
2. Description and significance
Describe the appearance, habitat, etc. of the organism, and why you think it is important.
- Include as many headings as are relevant to your microbe. Consider using the headings below, as they will allow readers to quickly locate specific information of major interest*
3. Genome structure
The genome of E. albertii is very similar to the rest of the Escherichia genus, making it hard to distinguish between them (1). E. albertii has the eaeA gene, deeming it a part of Enterobacteriaceae. This gene helps the bacteria adhere to epithelial cells in tissues, ultimately modifying the cells and thus contributing to diarrhea (6). Each strain has an identical 353 base-pair fragment in their 16S rRNA genes (7). E. albertii showed 99.5-99.8% sequence similarity to the 16S rRNA in Escherichia coli (8). Its G + C content is 49.8%. E. albertii’s chromosomes average 4,777 kb, making it smaller in size than E. coli, whose chromosomes average 5,132 kb. E. albertii has an average of 7 rRNA operons and 86-97 tRNA genes, 75 of which are shared between all strains. The microbe has between 7-11 insertion sequence elements, which is less than that of E. coli, which have between 42 to 224 copies (8). Each strain of E. albertii has the gene cdtB, which shows the capability of encoding cytolethal distending toxin, CDT (8). Vulnerability to CDT can result in harmful modifications to the cell cycle (9). CDT can make the cell cycle stop and repair itself, even though there is no DNA damage. This can lead to the genetic makeup of the cell becoming unsteady and could potentially lead to malignant cells (9). It also encodes other virulence genes such as fimA, iucC, and aer. E. albertii encodes colicins B, D, E7, and M (8). The microbe demonstrates antibiotic resistance, with the greatest percentage of strains being tetracycline resistant at 62.7%. There are other high instances of streptomycin, piperacillin, and chloramphenicol resistance, with lower instances of ampicillin, norfloxacin, and furadantin resistance. 80.4% of strains demonstrate resistance to two or more antibiotics (10). The strain SP140150 carries genes mcr-1 and blaCTX-M-55 (10). The gene mcr-1 is a plasmid-mediated colistin resistance gene, which means that E. albertii is resistant to the antibiotic colistin (10). The gene blaCTX-M-55 is a part of the extended-spectrum beta-lactamase gene group, which are resistant to a range of antibiotics (10).
4. Cell structure
Interesting features of cell structure. Can be combined with “metabolic processes”
5. Metabolic processes
Describe important sources of energy, electrons, and carbon (i.e. trophy) for the organism/organisms you are focusing on, as well as important molecules it/they synthesize(s).
6. Ecology
Habitat; symbiosis; contributions to the environment.
7. Pathology
How does this organism cause disease? Human, animal, plant hosts? Virulence factors, as well as patient symptoms.
8. Current Research
Include information about how this microbe (or related microbes) are currently being studied and for what purpose
Edited by [Sarah Ziobro, Sarah Tong, Sally Lakis, Miyu Niwa], students of Jennifer Talbot for BI 311 General Microbiology, 2015, Boston University.
9. References
It is required that you add at least five primary research articles (in same format as the sample reference below) that corresponds to the info that you added to this page. [Sample reference] Faller, A., and Schleifer, K. "Modified Oxidase and Benzidine Tests for Separation of Staphylococci from Micrococci". Journal of Clinical Microbiology. 1981. Volume 13. p. 1031-1035.
