The Biology and the Evolutionary Dynamics of Diarrheagenic Escherichia coli Pathotypes

Abstract

Escherichia coli is a commensal of the gastrointestinal tract of humans and animals, and a leading cause of gastroenteritis, bloodstream, and urinary tract infection, among others. Pathogenic E. coli causing diarrhea is delineated into six different types (pathotypes) based on the type of infection they cause. While these pathotypes have similar mechanisms to colonize the intestinal epithelial layers and cause diseases, they differ in their capacity to acquire virulence, resistance determinants, and other accessory genes essential for niche adaptation. The advent of whole-genome sequencing technologies has greatly enhanced our understanding of the physiology, emergence, and global spread of multidrug-resistant and pathogenic clones of E. coli. In this chapter, we provided a snapshot of the resistome and virulome, as well as their contributions to the ecological adaptation, evolution, and dissemination of E. coli pathotypes.