Lipopolysaccharides of three classes of supersensitive mutants ofSalmonella typhimurium

The lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of 3 recently identified antibiotic-supersensitive mutants of Salmonella typhimurium was analyzed and compared to the parent. The amounts of glucose, galactose, heptose, 2-keto-3-deoxyoctonate, total phosphorus, total amino groups, and fatty acids were similar in all of the LPS preparations, and typical of the chemotype Rb2 of the rfaJ parent. Sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) did not reveal any differences between the mutants and the parent. Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid and polycations, which partially release LPS from intact cells (presumably by replacing or removing divalent cations between molecules in the outer membrane), liberated similar amounts of [14C]alactose-labelled LPS from the mutants and the parent.