Comparative analysis of the colibactin determinant in Enterobacterales isolates

The bacterial genotoxin colibactin is a secondary metabolite found in a variety of Enterobacterales species and has been linked to bacterially induced DNA damage and even colorectal cancer in humans. The corresponding gene cluster has mainly been described in Escherichia coli and Klebsiella species. To gain deeper insights into the prevalence of this interesting gene cluster in bacteria, its sequence variability and its evolution, we compared the nucleotide sequence and sequence context of the colibactin determinant in different Enterobacterales isolates.