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Participation of Lipopolysaccharide Genes in the Determination of the Enterobacterial Common Antigen: Analysis of R Mutants of Salmonella minnesota

¹ Central Public Health Laboratory (State Serum Institute) Mannerheimintie 166, SF-00280 Helsinki 28, Finland; Max-Planck Institut für Immunbiologie, Stübeweg 51, 78 Freiburg-Zähringen, Germany; and Departments of Pediatrics and Microbiology, School of Medicine, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York 14222

ABSTRACT

A series of R (rough) Salmonella minnesota mutants with rfb, rfe, and rfa mutations leading to various defects in the biosynthesis of cell wall lipopolysaccharide was analyzed as to their enterobacterial common antigen (CA) content. All mutants that had functional rfe genes were CA⁺ as is the wild-type parent. This includes mutants with the most defective lipopolysaccharide core types, demonstrating that core structures are not a necessary part of CA. All rfe^– mutants (complete lipopolysaccharide core, defective synthesis of O side chains) were defective in the synthesis of CA. A smooth strain was accidentally found to be CA^–; the mutation responsible for this defect was also located, like rfe, very close to ilv.