Escherichia coli Residency in the Gut of Healthy Human Adults
Open accessAbstract
Escherichia coli is one of the most well-studied bacterial species, but several significant knowledge gaps remain regarding its ecology and natural history. Specifically, the most important factors influencing its life as a member of the healthy human gut microbiome are either underevaluated or currently unknown. Distinct E. coli population dynamics have been observed over the past century from a handful of temporal studies conducted in healthy human adults. Early studies using serology up to the most recent studies using genotyping and DNA sequencing approaches have all identified long-lived E. coli residents and short-lived transients. This review summarizes these discoveries and other studies that focused on the underlying mechanisms that lead to establishment and maintenance of E. coli residency in healthy human adults. Many fundamental knowledge gaps remain and are highlighted with the hope of facilitating future studies in this exciting research area.
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Most non-pathogenic E. coli present in the human intestine belong to phylogroups A, B2, and F.
“Most non-pathogenic E. coli present in the human intestine belong to phylogroups A, B2, and F [121].”
From Selection, Comparative Genomics, and Potential Probiotic Features of Escherichia coli 5C, a pks-Negative Strain Isolated from Healthy Infant Donor Feces (2026) · cites this paper as [121]
The Introduction (page unavailable) reports that phylogroups A, B2, and F are overabundant in the human gut and more likely to be long-lived residents. It does not establish that these groups account for most nonpathogenic E. coli present in the intestine; that wording extends a finding about residency to all E. coli present. (LLM, conf=0.83)
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References 135 · Cited by 197
Research works printed but not linked: 6
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- Authors
- Martinson, J. N. V., & Walk, S. T.
- Affiliations
- Montana State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Walk, Seth T.
- Venue
- EcoSal Plus
- Publisher
- American Society for Microbiology
- Published
- 2020-12-31
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 1
- ISSN
- 2324-6200 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7523338
- OpenAlex
- W3089332111
- Cited by
- 197
- References
- 135
- Citations by year
- 2026: 33 · 2025: 52 · 2024: 50 · 2023: 36 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 8
- FWCI
- 2.16
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- EcoSal Plus (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Cancer Institute (R01CA215784)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Endocrinology › Escherichia coli research studies
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Bacterial Genetics and Biotechnology
- Keywords
- Escherichia coli, gut microbiota, population dynamics, healthy adults
- MeSH terms
- Gastrointestinal Microbiome, Adult, Escherichia coli, Escherichia coli Infections, Feces, Humans, Healthy Volunteers
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