Discovery of how E. coli breaths suggests possible revolutionary antibiotics

[Plazma Inferno!]

An international team of including the Lomonosov Moscow State University researchers have determined which enzyme enables Escherichia coli bacterium (E. coli) to breathe. Scientists discovered how the E. coli bacterium can survive in the human gut, resolving the mystery of how they breathe. E. coli uses special enzymes that are absent in the human body. This means that the discovery can contribute to the creation of new drugs, which would be detrimental to the bacteria without harming a human.

http://phys.org/news/2016-04-discovery-revolutionary-antibiotics.html?

 

[Billy T]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think E-coli are anaerobic as once all life on earth was before green plants polluted the atmosphere with oxygen. That forced the then present life forms to seek shelter in animal guts, that are basically "oxygen free."

 

[Edont Knoff]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think E-coli are anaerobic as once all life on earth was before green plants polluted the atmosphere with oxygen. That forced the then present life forms to seek shelter in animal guts, that are basically "oxygen free."

According to wikipedia, e.coli is facultatively anaerob, that means is can do both, breath oxygen if present but can also live without oxygen if it's absent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escherichia_coli
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facultative_anaerobic_organism

So blocking the breathing would not kill e.coli but it will kill the bacteria which can't live without oxygene.