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

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 ts rha − ) might have descended from ancestral types like biotype 10 through 13 strains ( fim + inl ts rha + ).