Cross Index	Mycoplasma
SuperSet	Prokaryote, Eubacteria, Mycoplasmas (Mollicutes)
Compare	Acholeplasma, Anaeroplasma, Asteroleplasma anaerobium, Mycoplasma, Spiroplasma,Ureaplasma
Contrast	Archaea:Thermoplasma
Subset

 

Morphology

Mycoplasma

CELLULAR

Staining	Gram-negative
Morphology	Pleomorphic, varying in shape from spherical, slightly ovoid or pear shaped (0.3-0.8 um in diameter) to slender branched filaments of uniform diameter, ranging in length from a few to 150 um
Motility	Usually non-motile, but gliding motility has been described in some species
Specialized structures	Cells lack a cell wall and are bounded by a plasma membrane only

Division

COLONIAL

Solid surface

Colonies are very small (usually less than 1 mm in diameter). The typical colony, under adequate growth conditions, has a "fried egg" appearance

Liquid

 

Growth Parameters

Mycoplasma

PHYSIOLOGICAL

Tropism	Chemoorganotrophic
Oxygen	Facultatively anaerobic
pH
Temperature
Requirements	Require cholesterol or related sterols for growth use ither sugars or arginine as the major energy source..
Products
Enzymes	Catalase-negative
Unique features	possess a truncated flavin-terminated electron transport chain devoid of quinones and cytochromes...,

ENVIRONMENTAL

Habitat	Parasites and pathogens of a wide range of mammalian and avaian hosts.
Lifestyle
Pathogenicity

Distribution

 

Genome

Mycoplasma

G+C Mol %

23-40 (Tm,Bd)

 

Reference

Mycoplasma

First citation	Freundt,E.A.(1955) The classification of the pleuropneumonia group of organisms (Borrelomycetales). Int. Bull. Bacteriol. Nomencl. Taxon. 5:67-78
The Prokaryotes	p
Bergey's Systematatic	p 742 S. Razin and E. A. Freundt
Bergey's Determinative	p 706

References