My Story

My great, great, great grandmother was first found by Carle Gessard in 1882. He was a French military physician who was studying the blue-green pus he saw in soldiers on the battlefield.

I'm quite popular around the hospital I work in and you can find me usually within post-surgical wounds as a member of the NI/HAI team.

I've also been found in a pathogenic form on Phaseolus vulgaris, or the common bean, in Kenya since 2019. I'm also in eyedrops manufactured by EzriCare and Delsam Pharma in 2022 and 2023.

People have tried getting rid of me using carbapenems, polymyxins, and tigecycline, but I've been starting to develop resistance to these antiobiotics as well. I can be removed from wounds with acetic acids with concentrations of 0.5%-5%.

Microscopically, I am Gram-negative, rod-shaped, and respirate aerobically, but I can also do so anaerobically if need be. I move using flagellum, usually with a singular flagella, but I can also have 2-3. I also have pili that can attach onto different surfaces. My low-permeability cellular envelope has lipopolysaccharides in the outer membrane that is actually less toxic than other Gram-negative rod-shaped bacteria.

My colonies appear in a range of colors, from blue-green to yellow to red to brown. They're usually large and round with irregular margins but a flat surface. My colonies may also have a shiny surface due to the biofilm I produce, see my projects!