Relationships among the rfb regions of Salmonella serovars A, B, and D

The O antigens of Salmonella serogroups A, B, and D differ structurally in their side chain sugar residues. The genes encoding O-antigen biosynthesis are clustered in the rfb operon. The gene rfbJ in strain LT2 (serovar typhimurium, group B) and the genes rfbS and rfbE in strain Ty2 (serovar typhi, group D) account for the known differences in the rfb gene clusters used for determination of group specificity. In this paper, we report the nucleotide sequence of 2.9 kb of DNA from the rfb gene cluster of strain Ty2 and the finding of two open reading frames which have limited similarity with the corresponding open reading frames of strain LT2. These two genes complete the sequence of the rfb region of group D strain Ty2 if we use strain LT2 sequence where restriction site data show it to be extremely similar to the strain Ty2 sequence. The restriction map of the rfb gene cluster in group A strain IMVS1316 (serovar paratyphi) is identical to that of the cluster in strain Ty2 except for a frameshift mutation in rfbE and a triplicated region. The rfb gene clusters of these three strains are compared, and the evolutionary origin of these genes is discussed.