General description

Standardization of sample analysis is currently needed in microbiome genomics research workflow. Lack of standardization can lead to biases and errors in common processes during sample preparation and analysis such as sample amplification, sequencing and bioinformatics analyses. Escherichia coli genomic DNA microbial standard can serve as standard for benchmarking the performance along the workflow of microbiomics or meta-genomics analyses and as a tool to increase reproducibility and allow comparison of results obtained by different labs. Escherichia coli is a gram negative, facultative aerobic, rod-shaped coliform bacterium. E. coli colonizes the infant gut within hours of birth and establishes itself as the most abundant facultative anaerobe of the human intestinal microflora for the remainder of life, equipped with the abilities to grow in the ever-changing environment in the gut and cope with the mammalian host interaction. Nevertheless, E. coli can survive in many different ecological habitats, including abiotic environments, and is considered a highly versatile species. Known habitats of E. coli include soil, water, sediment, and food. Some strains of E. coli have evolved and adapted to a pathogenic lifestyle and can cause different disease pathologies.