The authors studied 260 freshly isolated and laboratory cultures of salmonellae belonging to different serological groups. Heterogeneity of the majority of the strains studied by colour fluorescence of the colonies in the oblique light flux was demonstrated. Genetically bound spontaneous stable mutants with a different antigenic composition were selected by this method from a number of serological types. The isolated mutants were in the S-form and failed to differ by morphological, cultural and biochemical properties from the initial parental strains. A study of the antigenic structure by the method of agar immunoelectrophoresis and determination of their serological properties showed the mutants to have disturbances in the processes of O- or K-antigen synthesis.