Etymologia: Escherichia coli

Escherichia coli [eshʺə-rikʹe-ə coʹlī]

A gram-negative, facultatively anaerobic rod, Escherichia coli was named for Theodor Escherich, a German-Austrian pediatrician. Escherich isolated a variety of bacteria from infant fecal samples by using his own anaerobic culture methods and Hans Christian Gram’s new staining technique. Escherich originally named the common colon bacillus Bacterium coli commune. Castellani and Chalmers proposed the name E. coli in 1919, but it was not officially recognized until 1958.

References

Oberbauer BA. Theodor Escherich—Leben und Werk. Munich: Futuramed-Verlag; 1992.
Shulman ST, Friedmann HC, Sims RH. Theodor Escherich: the first pediatric infectious diseases physician? Clin Infect Dis. 2007;45:1025–9 .DOI PubMed

Suggested citation for this article: Etymologia: Escherichia coli. Emerg Infect Dis. 2015 Aug [date cited]. http://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid2108.ET2108

DOI: 10.3201/eid2108.ET2108