Articles of Significant Interest Selected from This Issue by the Editors

Abstract

Escherichia coli K1 strains are a major cause of neonatal sepsis and meningitis and are associated with poor clinical outcome. They colonize the gastrointestinal tract of the newborn infant before translocation to the blood by poorly defined mechanisms. McCarthy et al. (p. 3704 –3711) show that colibactin, a genotoxin that causes genetic instability in eukaryotic cells, is widely distributed amongst E. coli K1 isolates, is required for optimal gastrointestinal colonization, and facilitates entry into the bloodstream of neonatal rats. They demonstrate for the first time that colibactin makes a significant contribution to invasive neonatal disease and may be a target for therapeutic intervention.