Diversity of Escherichia coli[edit]
Main article: Escherichia coli § Diversity
Escherichia coli is one of the most diverse bacterial species with several pathogenic strains with different symptoms and with only 20% of the genome common to all strains.[1] Furthermore, from the evolutionary point of view, the members of genus Shigella (dysenteriae, flexneri, boydii, sonnei) are actually E. coli strains "in disguise" (i.e. E. coli is paraphyletic to the genus).[2]