Genome archeology of two laboratory Salmonella enterica enterica sv Typhimurium

The Salmonella research community has used strains and bacteriophages over decades, exchanging useful new isolates among laboratories for study of cell surface antigens, metabolic pathways and restriction-modification studies. Here we present the sequences of two laboratory Salmonella strains (STK005, an isolate of LB5000; and its descendant ER3625).

In the ancestry of LB5000, segments of ∼15 and ∼42 kb were introduced from Salmonella enterica sv Abony 103 into Salmonella enterica sv Typhimurium LT2, forming strain SD14; this strain is thus a hybrid of S. enterica isolates. Strains in the SD14 lineage were used to define flagellar antigens from the 1950s to the 1970s, and to define three restriction-modification systems from the 1960s to the 1980s.

LB5000 was also used as host in phage typing systems used by epidemiologists. In the age cheaper and easier sequencing, this resource will provide access to the sequence that underlies the extensive literature.