Coliform Bacteria
By Levi Clancy for Student Reader on
updated
- Parent
- Siblings
- Binomial Nomenclature
- Caenorhabditis elegans
- Darwinian Evolution
- Deuterostomes
- Drosophila melanogaster
- Echinoderms
- Evolutionary agents
- Evolutionary Chronometer
- Evolutionary Constraints
- Phylogenetics
- Phylum Annelida
- Phylum Cnidaria
- Phylum Platyhelminthes and Nemertea
- Phylum Porifera
- Reconstructing Phylogenies
- Taxonomic Units
Coliform bacteria are nonpathogens present in fecal matter. The presence of coliform bacteria in a water supply indicates fecal contamination (sewage has contaminated the water). Coliform bacteria have the following properties:
Facultative aerobes
Gram negative
non-sporeforming rods
lactose-fermenting
typically not pathogenic
predominantly E. coli
used as an indicator of contamination of the water supply