Genetics of swarming motility in Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium: critical role for lipopolysaccharide.

ABSTRACT: Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium can differentiate into hyperflagellated swarmer cells on agar of an appropriate consistency (0.5 to 0.8%), allowing efficient colonization of the growth surface. Flagella are essential for this form of motility. In order to identify genes involved in swarming, we carried out extensive transposon mutagenesis of serovar Typhimurium, screening for those that had functional flagella yet were unable to swarm. A majority of these mutants were defective in lipopolysaccharide (LPS) synthesis, a large number were defective in chemotaxis, and some had defects in putative two-component signaling components. While the latter two classes were defective in swarmer cell differentiation, representative LPS mutants were not and could be rescued for swarming by extern

SUBMITTER: Toguchi A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC94776 | biostudies-literature | 2000 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature