This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Old, D. C. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Old, D. C.

Temperature-Dependent Utilization of meso-Inositol: a Useful Biotyping Marker in the Genealogy of Salmonella typhimurium

Bacteriology Department, University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland

ABSTRACT

Salmonella typhimurium strains from natural sources either ferment or do not ferment meso-inositol in peptone water in 24 hr at 37 C. Ninety-five percent of the strains that are designated inositol-nonfermenting on the basis of their phenotype at 37 C ferment inositol when incubated at 25 C. Two classes of temperature-sensitive mutants were detected among the 712 strains of S. typhimurium examined. The occurrence of low-temperature fermentation of inositol among wild-type strains of S. typhimurium from biotypes 10 through 13 and FIRN suggested a genealogical relationship between these two groups, and that FIRN strains (fim^–inl^tsrha^–) might have descended from ancestral types like biotype 10 through 13 strains (fim⁺inl^tsrha⁺).