Salmonella Description

In Chapter 1 Bruce N. Ames, the plenary speaker at the symposium, describes the development of the Salmonella/microsome assay, which is better known as the Ames Test. This test was the first proven rehable and rapid in-vitro method for the mutagenic and carcinogenic screening of chemicals. Included is an excellent overview of the potential problem of human exposure to toxic substances as well as a description of how this important method is being used to test chemical substances. 

The descriptive phase of biology is an essential prerequisite for the healthy growth of biochemistry, and the serological classification of the Salmonellas and related Enterobacteria has allowed a comprehensive and reproducible series of analyses to be made where otherwise a chaotic situation could have arisen. The Kauffmann-White Schema embraces more than the specificities due to polysaccharides of the O antigens. The H antigens, for example, are specificities due to the protein components of the flagella, and these are probably beyond the scope of chemical methods available at this time. 

Providing descriptive data on the extent and temporal trends of antimicrobial susceptibility in Salmonella and other enteric organisms from human and animal populations. 

Some Salmonella species do not conform to the general description of the genus. 

Figure 6. Schematic description of the stepwise assembly of coli and Salmonella flagella. The step numbers correspond to those described in the text. Abbreviations QM, outer membrane PL, peptidoglycan layer CM, cytoplasmic membrane. Modified (with permission) from Aizawa [15].

This compendium of microbial feature descriptors is designed to employ computer technology in the storage, retrieval and analysis of data descriptive of individual strains. A set of filled out code sheets of the type now used is appended as an example it has been encoded for descriptors of the genus Salmonella and should be consulted as a model for the understanding of the following coding directions. 

In many research and regulatory cases, data descriptive of a specimen must be associated or coordinated with the descriptions of the strains isolated from the specimens. Some common specimen data are exemplified by "total" microbial population, numbers of special groups of organisms such as coliforms, heat resistant bacteria, halophiles, psychrophiles, etc., the presence or absence of certain organisms (e.g.. Salmonella), incubation media, incubation conditions, geographic location of the specimen, physical and chemical condition of the specimen at the time of accession, and conditions of isolation of microbial strains from the specimen. 

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