Escherichia coli has made a name for itself as being both a friend and a foe with connections to food contamination, healthy probiotics, gut pathogenesis and biotechnological advancements. In the microbiology research community, E. coli’s versatility and multifaceted nature makes it one of the most studied microorganisms, and it has paved the way for new discoveries in genetic processes, biotechnology and clinical microbiology.

Guest editors, Wolfgang Kneifel and Stephen Forsythe have collated a new Thematic Issue on E. coli with FEMS Microbiology Letters. In light of the significance of E. coli in many aspects of the research and societal landscape, this collection of articles explores the diversity and complexity of E. coli in various ecological niches.

So far, there seems to be no other bacterium like E. coli in nature that has induced so many advancements in the fields of medicine, biology and biotechnology… our journal has made an attempt to collect some update of knowledge related to selected areas covering this historically but also currently relevant microbe. We do hope that the readership identifies the one or the other article as milestones on the way to build up the knowledge about this interesting species.

Wolfgang Kneifel and Stephen Forsythe, Guest Editors, FEMS Microbiology Letters

Explore this collection of articles, and discover the diversity of the E. coli community. This Thematic Issue is free to read until 31 August 2017.