Members of the human microbiota are increasingly being correlated to human health and disease states, but the majority of the underlying microbial metabolites that regulate host-microbe interactions remain largely unexplored. Select strains of E. coli present in the human colon have been linked to initiating inflammation-induced colorectal cancer through an unknown small molecule-mediated process. The responsible nonribosomal peptide-polyketide hybrid pathway encodes “colibactin,” a largely uncharacterized family of small molecules. Genotoxic small molecules from this pathway capable of initiating cancer formation have remained elusive due to their high instability. Guided by metabolomic analyses, here we employ a combination of NMR spectroscopy and bioinformatics-guided isotopic labeling studies to characterize the colibactin warhead, an unprecedented substituted spirobicyclic structure. The warhead crosslinks duplex DNA in vitro, providing direct experimental evidence for colibactin’s DNA-damaging activity. The data support unexpected models for both colibactin biosynthesis and its mode of action.

The gene cluster responsible for synthesis of the unknown molecule “colibactin” has been identified in mutualistic and pathogenic Escherichia coli. The pathway endows its producer with a long-term persistence phenotype in the human bowel, a probiotic activity used in the treatment of ulcerative colitis, and a carcinogenic activity under host inflammatory conditions. To date, functional small molecules from this pathway have not been reported. Here we implemented a comparative metabolomics and targeted structural network analyses approach to identify a catalog of small molecules dependent on the colibactin pathway from the meningitis isolate E. coli IHE3034 and the probiotic E. coli Nissle 1917. The structures of 10 pathway-dependent small molecules are proposed based on structural characterizations and network relationships. The network will provide a roadmap for the structural and functional elucidation of a variety of other small molecules encoded by the pathway. From the characterized small molecule set, in vitro bacterial growth inhibitory and mammalian CNS receptor antagonist activities are presented.

e 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 Pseudovibrio strain. Herein, we sequenced the genome of Frischella perrara PEB0191, a bacterial gut symbiont of honey bees and identified a homologous colibactin biosynthetic pathway related to those found in Enterobacteriaceae. We show that the colibactin genomic island (GI) has conserved gene synteny and biosynthetic module architecture across F. perrara, Enterobacteriaceae, and the Pseudovibrio strain. Comparative metabolomics analyses of F. perrara and E. coli further reveal that these two bacteria produce related colibactin pathway-dependent metabolites. Finally, we demonstrate that F. perrara, like E. coli, causes DNA damage in eukaryotic cells in vitro in a colibactin pathway-dependent manner. Together, these results support that divergent variants of the colibactin biosynthetic pathway are widely distributed among bacterial symbionts, producing related secondary metabolites and likely endowing its producer with functional capabilities important for diverse symbiotic associations. C haracteristic bacterial communities colonize the digestive tracts of almost all animals and influence the health and disease of their hosts (1-4). These communities are typically dominated by specialist bacteria, which are adapted to live in the gut of their host and have evolved specific functions for symbiotic interactions. The honey bee, Apis mellifera, harbors such a characteristic gut microbiota (5). Its simple composition of only eight bacterial species makes the honey bee gut microbiota an ideal model to study the ecology and evolution of gut bacteria and to understand mutualistic, commensal, and parasitic relationships (6). Furthermore, honey bees are important pollinators for agriculture and almost all terrestrial ecosystems. Thus, it is essential to characterize the genomic capabilities of these symbiotic bacteria so as to better understand their impact on the health of their host.In the anterior part of the honey bee hindgut, two gammaproteobacteria, Gilliamella apicola and Frischella perrara, and one betaproteobacterium, Snodgrassella alvi, are the dominant members of this gut community (7-9). Comparative genomics and functional analyses have recently revealed that S. alvi and G. apicola harbor complementary metabolic pathways, co...

The colibactins are hybrid polyketide–nonribosomal peptide natural products produced by certain strains of commensal and extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli. The metabolites are encoded by the clb gene cluster as prodrugs termed precolibactins. clb+ E. coli induce DNA double-strand breaks in mammalian cells in vitro and in vivo and are found in 55–67% of colorectal cancer patients, suggesting that mature colibactins could initiate tumorigenesis. However, elucidation of their structures has been an arduous task as the metabolites are obtained in vanishingly small quantities (μg/L) from bacterial cultures and are believed to be unstable. Herein we describe a flexible and convergent synthetic route to prepare advanced precolibactins and derivatives. The synthesis proceeds by late-stage union of two complex precursors (e.g., 28 + 17 → 29a, 90%) followed by a base-induced double dehydrative cascade reaction to form two rings of the targets (e.g., 29a → 30a, 79%). The sequence has provided quantities of advanced candidate precolibactins that exceed those obtained by fermentation, and is envisioned to be readily scaled. These studies have guided a structural revision of the predicted metabolite precolibactin A (from 5a or 5b to 7) and have confirmed the structures of the isolated metabolites precolibactins B (3) and C (6). Synthetic precolibactin C (6) was converted to N-myristoyl-D-asparagine and its corresponding colibactin by colibactin peptidase ClbP. The synthetic strategy outlined herein will facilitate mechanism of action and structure–function studies of these fascinating metabolites, and is envisioned to accommodate the synthesis of additional (pre)colibactins as they are isolated.

The integration of chemical ecology and bacterial genome mining can enhance the discovery of structurally diverse natural products in functional contexts. By examining bacterial secondary metabolism in the framework of its ecological niche, insights can be drawn for the upregulation of orphan biosynthetic pathways and the enhancement of enzyme substrate supply to illuminate new secondary metabolic pathways that would otherwise be silent or undetected under typical laboratory cultivation conditions. Access to these new natural products (i.e., the chemotypes) facilitates experimental genotype-to-phenotype linkages. Here, we describe select functional natural products produced by Xenorhabdus and Photorhabdus bacteria, with experimentally linked biosynthetic gene clusters, as illustrative examples of synergy between chemical ecology and bacterial genome mining in connecting genotypes to phenotypes through chemotype characterization. These Gammaproteobacteria share a mutualistic relationship with nematodes and a pathogenic relationship with insects, and in select cases, humans. The natural products encoded by these bacteria distinguish their interactions with animal hosts and other microorganisms in their multipartite symbiotic lifestyles. Though both genera have similar lifestyles, their genetic, chemical, and physiological attributes are distinct. Both undergo phenotypic variation and produce a profuse number of bioactive secondary metabolites. We provide further detail in the context of regulation, production, processing, and function of these genetically encoded small molecules with respect to their roles in mutualism and pathogenicity. These collective insights more widely promote the discovery of atypical orphan biosynthetic pathways encoding novel small molecules in symbiotic systems, which could open new avenues for investigating and exploiting microbial chemical signaling in host-bacteria interactions.