OLIGONUCLEOTIDE PROBES SPECIFIC FOR THE GENUS SALMONELLA AND FOR SALM-TYPHIMURIUM

Synthetic oligonucleotides have been deduced and synthesized based on the sequence of a salmonella-specific polynucleotide probe. Two oligon ucleotide probes, ST4 and ST15rev hybridized to 93 and 92 strains resp ectively out of 93 strains of Salmonella analysed. ST4, however, cross hybridized to one of the 28 strains of 16 genera of Enterobacteriacea e tested. Based on sequence alignment, in 16 strains of Salmonella, of a 114 base pair region, a Salm. typhimurium specific oligonucleotide probe, ST22, was identified. In colony hybridization, this probe detec ted all 47 strains of Salm. typhimurium analysed without hybridization to 94 strains of other Salmonella serotypes and to 26 strains of non- Salmonella bacteria.