This project primarily serves the needs of the E. coli/Salmonella research community as a comprehensive archive of the entire corpus of knowledge about the enteric bacterial cell. It is of value also to all cellular and microbial biologists and a resource for advanced undergraduate and graduate instruction.

To serve these multiple roles, EcoSal supplements its ongoing archive of knowledge with a continuously updated review of contemporary research, interpretive essays on the meaning and significance of new research findings, and evaluation of new techniques and approaches to enteric bacterial research.

Hundreds of U.S. and international scholars participate as author-curators of individual chapters. Tasks are assigned by a group of editors working under the authority of a Board of Executive Editors. Author-curators, editors, and Executive Editors all serve for defined terms.

Annual subscriptions have been designed to ensure that virtually all students and investigators have access to this resource. Access to Individual chapters may be purchased as well.

Features of EcoSal

1. Comprehensive archiving of all research—not just selected examples—is the goal. The concept of using paradigms to illustrate emerging principles has been retained.


2. The basic unit of information is the chapter, a unit of information that can readily be covered by an individual author-curator. There may come to be as many as 500 to 1,000 chapters.


3. Chapters are reviewed and updated on a schedule judged appropriate for each case. Author-curators have a range of responsibilities assigned by editors. In some cases a new chapter is created; in other cases the task is to modify and update an existing one. Modification can include additional information, correction or reinterpretation of former material, or more extensive recasting of the subject on the basis of new information or insight.


4. Links to other websites are provided in order to encompass large data sets such as genetic maps, mutant information, and sequences (click on the “Links” tab, above). Linkages also provide the opportunity for sophisticated presentation of structural and dynamic data and tie the enteric bacterial knowledge base to that of other organisms.


5. The scope of EcoSal includes closely related organisms such as Klebsiella aerogenes and Shigella species. Besides an expanded treatment of infectious diseases caused by enteric bacteria, EcoSal includes general ecology and evolution and bioinformatics and systems biology as well as selected historical aspects of enteric bacterial research.


6. Integrative analysis of information is stressed, with both the research investigator and the student in mind. The concept of "editions" does not apply to a continuing project of this nature. Therefore publication of hard copy books will take on new functions, including but not limited to (i) presentations of "concept" papers, (ii) publication of summaries of completed research subjects, and (iii) creation of educationally useful presentations of specific topics or areas.