Write An Essay On Yersinia Bacteria

Yersinia is a genus of bacteria that belongs to the Enterobacteriaceae family (Adams and Moss 2010). It is a rod-shaped, gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, non-spore forming, catalase-positive and oxidase-negative bacterium (Adams and Moss 2010). The genus was named after Alexandre Yersin who was a French bacteriologist in 1894 (Adams and Moss 2010). There are three species in the genus Yersinia: Yersinia enterocolitica, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis and Yersinia pestis (Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute 2014). Y. enterocolitica is the most common in the United States where it occurs mainly in children (Centers for Disease Control 2009). It is known for growing at a range temperature of -1℃ to + 40℃ (Adams and Moss 2010). This bacterium is heat sensitive with a lot of variation between strains (Adams and Moss 2010). The pH it usually thrives best in is at pH 7-8 with a minimum between 5.1-4.1(Adams and Moss 2010). Y. enterocolitica can be isolated mainly from soil, water and animals (Adams and Moss 2010). The bacterium is divided in categories such as biotypes stereotypes, and phage type (Adams and Moss 2010).

enterocolitica causes illness mainly in children under the age of seven and most common in the wintertime (Adams and Moss 2010). Once contaminated food is ingested, the bacteria travels to the stomach where is can survive in stomach acids and adheres to mucosal cells in the gut associated lymphoid tissues (Adams and Moss 2010). By endocytosis, the adhered cell is taken up by the epithelial cells where it survives and can release cytotoxic chemicals (Adams and Moss 2010). It than invades phagocytic cells and produces a local inflammatory response (Adams and Moss