Gut symbionts from distinct hosts exhibit genotoxic activity via divergent colibactin biosynthesis pathways.

ABSTRACT: Secondary metabolites produced by nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) or polyketide synthase (PKS) pathways are chemical mediators of microbial interactions in diverse environments. However, little is known about their distribution, evolution, and functional roles in bacterial symbionts associated with animals. A prominent example is colibactin, a largely unknown family of secondary metabolites produced by Escherichia coli via a hybrid NRPS-PKS biosynthetic pathway that inflicts DNA damage upon eukaryotic cells and contributes to colorectal cancer and tumor formation in the mammalian gut. Thus far, homologs of this pathway have only been found in closely related Enterobacteriaceae, while a divergent variant of this gene cluster was recently discovered in a marine alphaproteobacterial Ps

SUBMITTER: Engel P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4309719 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature