Distribution of insertion sequence IS200 in Salmonella and Shigella

Two DNA probes for the detection of insertion sequence IS200 by either Southern blotting or colony hybridization were constructed. One of the probes is a 300 bp EcoRI-HindIII fragment of IS200 cloned onto pBluescript KS(+); the other is a tail-to-tail dimer of the same fragment cloned onto pUC19. A survey of the presence of IS200 among enteric bacteria revealed that more than 90% of the pathogenic or food-poisoning isolates of Salmonella spp. examined contained one or more copies of insertion sequence IS200, with the exception of the subgenus I serovar S. agona in which IS200 is not found. Although insertion sequence IS200 was first considered a Salmonella-specific element, it also exists in many isolates of Shigella sonnei and Shigella flexneri, but not in Shigella dysenteriae.