Escherichia

Escherichia is a rod-shaped genus of bacteria from the family Enterobacteriaceae. This genus of bacteria is Gram-negative, does not form spores, and is facultatively anaerobic, which means that this bacteria makes adenosine triphosphate (ATP) by aerobic respiration if oxygen is present in the environment, but can also switch to fermentation. Escherichia is commonly founding the gastrointestinal tracts of warm-blooded animals, and these species of bacteria typically provide a portion of vitamin K (microbially derived) to their host. A good number of Escherichia species are pathogenic, which means that it can cause disease to its host. The genus Escherichia is named after Theodor Escherich, a German-Austriant pediatrician and professor who discovered the Escherichia coli or E. coli.

There are many enzymes found in the Escherichia genus, including the pyruvate formate lyase (PFL), which helps regulate anaerobic glucose metabolism—a process that is important in a facultatively anaerobic organism. Pyruvate formate lyase uses radical non-redox chemistry in order to catalyze the reversible conversion of pyruvate and coenzyme-A (CoA) into acetyl coenzyme-A and formate. Restriction endonuclease is an enzyme involved with restriction modification system and naturally found in Escherichia coli. This enzyme contains 402 amino acids, which gve the substance a molecular mass of 45.2 kDa.

Fumarate hydratase is an enzyme that catalyzes the reversible hydration of fumarate to L-malate, and this enzyme is typically found in Escherichia coli fumC, because of its thermolabile dimeric nature. The glycoside hydrolase family 2 is a group of enzymes have a conserved glutamic acid residue, which is often found in Escherichia coli lacZ. These enzymes hydrolyse the glycosidic bond between two or more carbohydrate molecules, as well as between a carbohydrate molecule and a non-carbohydrate molecule.

This category contains scientific information on Escherichia, a genus of bacteria that contains a wide variety of enzymes.