Naturally occurring prototrophic strains of Salmonella typhi

Abstract

In a survey of the nutritional requirements of Salmonella typhi it was found that 3.2% of 560 recent clinical isolates were able to grow in a minimal medium consisting of phosphates, ammonium and magnesium sulfates, and glucose; the remainder required tryptophan. Both groups grew slowly and rather poorly in these media due to a deficient utilization of sulfur from sulfate. Addition of cysteine or sodium sulfide or thiosulfate promoted rapid and profuse growth. Minimal medium containing thiosulfate as a source of sulfur allowed for an easy and sharp differentiation of prototrophic variants needing none of the amino acids, and tryptophan auxotrophs. The prototrophic phenotype is not the result of the presence of rare prototrophic mutants, since these strains were able to develop in minimal medium from very small inocula (102), all colonies were prototrophic in replica plating experiments, and the cultures gave comparable colony counts when seeded simultaneously on nutrient and on minimal agar plates.