December 6, 1952

Doctor J. Oréze

Professor of BacterLology
Scheel of Medicine
Angers, Maine et Loire,
France:

Dear Professor Ordzé:

Your letter of November 27 has just been received, and I have read
it with great interest.

I am not eure that I have thoroughly understood your experiment. May
I ask the following details?

1. Y understood thet 5. typhi H-901 coxnpletely lacked a Vi antAgen,
and therefore sould not be given a phage type. According to my associate,
Dr. Spioer, who hae worked in Dr. FPelix' laboratory at Colindale, London,
the H-901 is used as the type for non-Vi preparations: Similarly, Booy &
Wolff (see below) rely on this in their study.

2. Exactly what tempereture and time of treatment was used to kill
the S. paratyphi B (Ranson).

3. How was T M isolated from the treated culture of TR? Is it that the
latter is so rough that it agglutinates, while the T M grows in the cupernate:

I ask these questions to determine whether your findings can be correlated
with our own studies on so-called "transduction" in Salmonella. We have
found that various traite can be tranemitted from one culture to another by
means of certain phages. As shown in the enclosures, these traita adnoclude
not only various physiological characteristics, but also the H antigens.
Dr. Spicer @m now working on the traneduction of O antigens. We have not
yet considered the Vi antigen, but Booy and Wolff (Antonte v. Leeuwenhoek, 1952,
181183-189) have reported the partial tranemission of Vi antigen fron 3.
ballerup to S. typhi H-901.I do not mow how their phenomenon correlates
with ours either. Our phages withstand one hour at 58° 0., but are quickly
destroyed at texperatures over 70°.

Our first studies have been published in the November, 1952, issue of the
Journal of Bacteriology. As secon as possible, I will send you a reprint.
Meanwhile, the enclosures may be of interest to you.

Yours sincerely,

Joshua Lederberg
Associate Professor of Genetica

FeS. Have you seen aleo Anderson's paper,

The aignif ~
of S. typhi. yours Hygieme 49:458~470, 195 Bignificance of Vi-phage types Fl and Fe
7

1 ? He finde that the phage types can be modified