Occurrence of Salmonella typhimurium virulence plasmid-specific sequences in different serovars of Salmonella.

We have subcloned the 96-kilobasepair (kb) virulence plasmid, pLT2, of Salmonella typhimurium line LT2 into 7 subfragments. Using these subclones as probes, 35 independent Salmonella isolates were tested for complementary DNA sequences Sequences homologous to pLT2 were present in 15 of the isolates. All of these contained sequences homologous to at least one specific probe representing 15 kb of pLT2. The traT gene from pLT2 was absent in 6 of these 15 isolates. Three strains reported to be cured of the plasmid were shown to harbour some sequences with homology to the pLT2 plasmid. Seven isolates were shown to contain homologous sequences with pBR322 but not with the pLT2 plasmid.