The inhibitory effect of two sets of E. coli strains was tested in co-culture experiments against LF82, as well as their respective ΔclbP mutants: i) strains similar to EcN that carry both a truncated Mcc gene cluster and the pks island: strains CFT073, ABU83972, and ATCC®25922; and ii) strains that carry the pks island but which are deprived of Mcc encoding genes: the human commensal strain M1/5, the meningitis-causing strain SP15, the murine commensal strain NC101, and the laboratory strain MG1655 that hosts a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) bearing the pks island. This evidence concerns the gene MCC and meningitis.