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.

细菌基因毒素大肠杆菌素（colibactin）是一类存在于多种肠杆菌目（Enterobacterales）物种中的次级代谢产物，其与细菌诱导的DNA损伤乃至人类结直肠癌的发生存在关联。该功能对应的基因簇主要在大肠杆菌（Escherichia coli）和克雷伯菌（Klebsiella）物种中被描述。为深入探究该基因簇在细菌中的流行情况、序列变异特性及其演化规律，本研究对不同肠杆菌目分离株中大肠杆菌素决定因子的核苷酸序列及其序列背景进行了比较分析。