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The Genus Enterococcus

  • Reference work entry
The Prokaryotes

Introduction

The genus Enterococcus contains bacterial species associated with animals and plants. Only species from humans and domestic animals have been studied in some detail. Limited information is available on plant-associated species and this has been mainly derived from the study of strains transiently associated with humans or animals.

The enterococci are most often considered as components of the intestinal flora of humans and animals acting as opportunistic pathogens in different extra-intestinal compartments of the body. They have received considerable attention in medical bacteriology because of their increasing role in hospital-acquired (nosocomial) infections. An important factor contributing to this phenomenon undoubtedly has been their natural (intrinsic) and acquired resistance to frequently used antibiotics. Numerous studies have been devoted in recent years to this topic. Genetic studies (not treated in the present contribution), except those undertaken for taxonomic...

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Authors
  1. Luc Devriese
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  2. Margo Baele
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  3. Patrick Butaye
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, University of Minnesota, Box 196, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN 55455-0312, USA

    Martin Dworkin Professor Dr. (Editor-in-Chief) (Editor-in-Chief)

  2. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University Medical School, 299 Campus Drive, Fairchild, D039, Stanford, CA, 94305-5124, USA

    Stanley Falkow

  3. Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, Tel Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv, 69978, Israel

    Eugene Rosenberg

  4. Department of Microbiology, Technical University Munich, 80290, Munich, Germany

    Karl-Heinz Schleifer

  5. DSMZ- German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH, Mascheroder Weg 1b, 38124, Braunschweig, Germany

    Erko Stackebrandt

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Devriese, L., Baele, M., Butaye, P. (2006). The Genus Enterococcus. In: Dworkin, M., Falkow, S., Rosenberg, E., Schleifer, KH., Stackebrandt, E. (eds) The Prokaryotes. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30744-3_5

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