Mycoplasma and ureaplasma infections

Organisms of the class Mollicutes (meaning soft-skin) have regressively evolved, by genome reduction, from Gram-positive bacterial ancestors, namely certain clostria (1). The taxonomy of the class Mollicutes, containing four orders, five familes, and eight genera, is shown in Table 1 (2) The term "mollicute" is sometimes trivially used to describe any organism in the class. The term "mycoplasma" might be used best to describe any member of the genus Mycoplasma, but is also used, as in this chapter, in a trivial way to refer to any organism in the class. Table 1 Taxonomy and Properties of Mycoplasmas (class Mollicutes; Adapted from ref. 2 ) Classification Current no. of Recognized species Genome size(kbp) Mel%G+C content Distinctive properties Habitat Order I: Mycoplasmatales Family I:Mycoplasmataceae Genus I:Mycoplasma 100 580-l300 23-41 Optimum growth at 37°C Humans,animals,plants,insects Genus II Ureaplasma 6 730-1160 27-30 Urease positive Humans,animals Order II Entomoplasmatales Family I Entomoplasmataceae Genus I Entomoplasma 5 790-l140 27-29 Optimum growth Plants,insects at 30°C Genus II Mesoplasma 12 870-1100 27-30 Plants,insects Family II Spiroplasmataceae Genus I:Spiroplasma 17 940-2240 25-31 Helical filaments Arthropods(includ- ing insects), plants Order III Acholeplasmatales Family I Acholeplasmataceae Genus I Acholeplasma 13 About 1600 27-36 Animals,plants, insects Order IV Anaeroplasmatales Family I Anaeroplasmataceae Genus I.Anaeroplasma 4 About 1600 29-33 Oxygen-sensitive Bovine-ovine rumen obligate anaerobes Genus II Asteroleplasma 1 About 1600 40 Oxygen-sensitrve Bovine-ovine rumen obligate anaerobes Uncultivated,unclassified MLOs 506-1185 23-29 Uncultivated as yet Plants,insects.