Editing Escherichia coli (section)

==Normal microbiota==
''E. coli'' belongs to a group of bacteria informally known as [[coliforms]] that are found in the gastrointestinal tract of [[warm-blooded animals]].<ref name=Bergey2B>{{cite book | vauthors = Brenner DJ, Krieg NR, Staley JT |series=Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology|volume=2B|title=The Gammaproteobacteria| veditors = Garrity GM  |publisher=Springer |location= New York |edition=2nd |isbn=978-0-387-24144-9 |page=1108 |url= https://www.springer.com/life+sciences/book/978-0-387-24144-9 |date=26 July 2005| orig-year =1984 (Williams & Wilkins) |id=British Library no. GBA561951 }}</ref> ''E. coli'' normally colonizes an infant's [[gastrointestinal tract]] within 40 hours of birth, arriving with food or water or from the individuals handling the child.  In the bowel, ''E. coli'' adheres to the [[mucus]] of the [[large intestine]]. It is the primary [[Facultative anaerobic organism|facultative anaerobe]] of the human gastrointestinal tract.<ref name=Todar>{{cite web |url=http://www.textbookofbacteriology.net/e.coli.html |title=Pathogenic ''E. coli'' |access-date=30 November 2007 | vauthors = Todar K |work=Online Textbook of Bacteriology |publisher=University of Wisconsin–Madison Department of Bacteriology}}</ref> ([[Facultative anaerobic organism|Facultative anaerobes]] are organisms that can grow in either the presence or absence of oxygen.) As long as these bacteria do not acquire [[bacteriophage|genetic elements]] encoding for [[virulence factor]]s, they remain benign [[Commensalism|commensals]].<ref name=Evans>{{cite web |url=http://www.gsbs.utmb.edu/microbook/ch025.htm |title=Escherichia Coli |access-date=2 December 2007 | vauthors = Evans Jr DJ, Evans DG |work=Medical Microbiology, 4th edition |publisher=The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071102062813/http://www.gsbs.utmb.edu/microbook/ch025.htm <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 2 November 2007}}</ref>

===Therapeutic use===
Due to the low cost and speed with which it can be grown and modified in laboratory settings, ''E. coli'' is a popular expression platform for the production of [[recombinant proteins]] used in therapeutics. One advantage to using ''E. coli'' over another expression platform is that ''E. coli'' naturally does not export many proteins into the [[periplasm]], making it easier to recover a protein of interest without cross-contamination.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Guerrero Montero I, Dolata KM, Schlüter R, Malherbe G, Sievers S, Zühlke D, Sura T, Dave E, Riedel K, Robinson C | display-authors = 6 | title = Comparative proteome analysis in an ''Escherichia coli'' CyDisCo strain identifies stress responses related to protein production, oxidative stress and accumulation of misfolded protein | journal = Microbial Cell Factories | volume = 18 | issue = 1 | pages = 19 | date = January 2019 | pmid = 30696436 | pmc = 6350376 | doi = 10.1186/s12934-019-1071-7 | doi-access = free }}</ref> The ''E. coli'' K-12 strains and their derivatives (DH1, DH5α, MG1655, RV308 and W3110) are the strains most widely used by the biotechnology industry.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Selas Castiñeiras T, Williams SG, Hitchcock AG, Smith DC | title = ''E. coli'' strain engineering for the production of advanced biopharmaceutical products | journal = FEMS Microbiology Letters | volume = 365 | issue = 15 | date = August 2018 | pmid = 29982628 | doi = 10.1093/femsle/fny162 | s2cid = 51602230 | doi-access = free }}</ref> Nonpathogenic ''E. coli'' strain Nissle 1917 (EcN), (Mutaflor) and ''E. coli'' O83:K24:H31 (Colinfant)<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Wassenaar TM | title = ''E. coli'' | journal = European Journal of Microbiology & Immunology | volume = 6 | issue = 3 | pages = 147–61 | date = September 2016 | pmid = 27766164 | pmc = 5063008 | doi = 10.1556/1886.2016.00029 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Lodinová-Zádníková R, Cukrowska B, Tlaskalova-Hogenova H | s2cid = 19686481 | title = Oral administration of probiotic ''Escherichia coli'' after birth reduces frequency of allergies and repeated infections later in life (after 10 and 20 years) | journal = International Archives of Allergy and Immunology | volume = 131 | issue = 3 | pages = 209–11 | date = July 2003 | pmid = 12876412 | doi = 10.1159/000071488 }}</ref>) are used as [[probiotic]] agents in medicine, mainly for the treatment of various [[gastrointestinal disease]]s,<ref name="pmid15292145">{{cite journal | vauthors = Grozdanov L, Raasch C, Schulze J, Sonnenborn U, Gottschalk G, Hacker J, Dobrindt U | title = Analysis of the genome structure of the nonpathogenic probiotic ''Escherichia coli'' strain Nissle 1917 | journal = Journal of Bacteriology | volume = 186 | issue = 16 | pages = 5432–41 | date = August 2004 | pmid = 15292145 | pmc = 490877 | doi = 10.1128/JB.186.16.5432-5441.2004 }}</ref> including [[inflammatory bowel disease]].<ref name="pmid15867585">{{cite journal | vauthors = Kamada N, Inoue N, Hisamatsu T, Okamoto S, Matsuoka K, Sato T, Chinen H, Hong KS, Yamada T, Suzuki Y, Suzuki T, Watanabe N, Tsuchimoto K, Hibi T | s2cid = 23386584 | display-authors = 6 | title = Nonpathogenic ''Escherichia coli'' strain Nissle1917 prevents murine acute and chronic colitis | journal = Inflammatory Bowel Diseases | volume = 11 | issue = 5 | pages = 455–63 | date = May 2005 | pmid = 15867585 | doi = 10.1097/01.MIB.0000158158.55955.de }}</ref> It is thought that the EcN strain might impede the growth of opportunistic pathogens, including ''[[Salmonella]]'' and other [[Coliform bacteria|coliform]] enteropathogens, through the production of [[microcin]] proteins the production of [[siderophore]]s.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Charbonneau MR, Isabella VM, Li N, Kurtz CB | title = Developing a new class of engineered live bacterial therapeutics to treat human diseases | journal = Nature Communications | volume = 11 | issue = 1 | pages = 1738 | date = April 2020 | pmid = 32269218 | pmc = 7142098 | doi = 10.1038/s41467-020-15508-1 | bibcode = 2020NatCo..11.1738C }}</ref>