Genetic Structure and Distribution of the Colibactin Genomic Island

A genomic island encoding the biosynthesis and secretion pathway of putative hybrid nonribosomal peptide-polyketide colibactin has been recently described in Escherichia coli. Colibactin acts as a cyclomodulin and blocks the eukaryotic cell cycle. The origin and prevalence of the colibactin island among enterobacteria are unknown. We therefore screened 1,565 isolates of different genera and species related to the Enterobacteriaceae by PCR for the presence of this DNA element. The island was detected not only in E. coli but also in Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterobacter aerogenes, and Citrobacter koseri isolates. It was highly conserved among these species and was always associated with the yersiniabactin determinant. Structural variations between individual strains were only observed in an intergenic region containing variable numbers of tandem repeats. In E. coli