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Selection of Fimbriate Transductants of Salmonella typhimurium Dependent on Motility

Bacteriology Department, University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland

ABSTRACT

The ability to form type 1 fimbriae (Fim⁺) was readily transduced to 159 out of 161 wild-type motile Fim^– FIRN strains of Salmonella typhimurium with phage P22 propagated on a Fim⁺ donor strain. Fim⁺ clones were isolated from about 35% of tests after the fimbriate bacteria in the transduction mixture had been enriched by culture in aerobic static broth for 48 to 96 hr. A Fim⁺ transductant was isolated from only 1 out of 280 tests made with 10 nonmotile recipient FIRN strains that were nonflagellate (Fla^–)- or possessed "paralyzed" flagella (Fla⁺ Mot^–), though motile variants from these strains were fully competent in yielding Fim⁺ transductants. The property of motility was thought to facilitate the selective outgrowth of Fim⁺ transductant bacteria by enabling them to migrate aerotactically to the surface of the broth where their fimbriae permitted them to float and grow in a pellicle stimulated by the free supply of atmospheric oxygen.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Eisenstein, B. (1981). Phase variation of type 1 fimbriae in Escherichia coli is under transcriptional control. Science 214: 337-339 [Abstract]