A physical map of the Salmonella typhimurium LT2 genome made by using XbaI analysis.

XbaI digestion and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of the genome of Salmonella typhimurium LT2 yields 24 fragments: 23 fragments (total size, 4,807 kb) are from the chromosome, and one fragment (90 kb) is from the virulence plasmid pSLT. Some of the 23 fragments from the chromosome were located on the linkage map by the use of cloned genes as probes and by analysis of strains which gain an XbaI site from the insertion of Tn10. Twenty-one of the fragments were arranged as a circular physical map by the use of linking probes from a set of 41 lysogens in which Mud-P22 was stably inserted at different sites of the chromosome; fragment W (6.6 kb) and fragment X (6.4 kb) were not located on the physical map. XbaI digestion of strains with Tn10 insertions allowed the physical locations of specific genes along the chromosome to be determined on the basis of analysis of new-fragment sizes. There is good agreement between the order of genes on the linkage map, which is based primarily on P22 joint transduction and F-mediated conjugation, and the physical map, but there are frequently differences in the length of the interval from the two methods. These analyses allowed the measurement of the amount of DNA packaged in phage P22 heads by Mud-P22 lysogens following induction; this varies from ca. 100 kb (2 min) to 240 kb (5 min) in different parts of the chromosome.