About Christopher Rosch Expertise I will answer questions dealing with general biology, microbiology, biochemistry and molecular biology.
Experience Experience in the area Ph.D., University of Cologne (Germany) 6 years of lab experience (microbiology and molecular biology) Teaching lab courses for students
Publications Applied and Environmental Microbiology (USA) Biochemical Society Transactions (GB) Nitrogen Fixation: Global Perspectives (CABI Publishing, GB) Federal Nature Conservation Agency (BfN, Germany) Australian Journal of Plant Physiology
How are you doing? I just want to know the life cycle of e.coli? Do they die off by itself or can they lose out to other beneficial bacteria in terms of competition for nutrients?
Thanks
regards
simon
Answer Hi Simon,
I'm not sure what you mean by life cycle. Usually, E.coli just stays in the large intestine. It is a perfectly normal part of the intestinal microflora and generally not harmful; it does little else than grow and divide. However, with the faeces some E.coli get into the wastewater and from there may pollute drinking water. But this generally is no problem as they barely reproduce in the water. E.coli is not well adapted to survive in nutrient poor water - just as you suspected. It grows best on simple sugars and amino acids which occur in extremely low concentrations in aquatic environments. Concerning its pathogenicity, E.coli needs no intermediate hosts to infect humans (like certain pathogens). It can cause blood poisoning when it enters the bloodstream, e.g. by skin lesions. But this happens rather by "accident" - E.coli prefers the intestine as its habitat.
