Mycoplasma lactucae sp. nov., a sterol-requiring mollicute from a plant surface

Strain 831-C4T (T = type strain), isolated from the surface of lettuce plants (Lactuca sativa) obtained from a retail food market, was shown to be a sterol-requiring mollicute. Morphological examination of this organism by electron and dark-field microscopic techniques showed that it consists of small, nonhelical, nonmotile, pleomorphic coccoid cells, with individual cells surrounded by a single cytoplasmic membrane. No evidence of a cell wall was observed. The organism grew rapidly in all conventional culture medium formulations for mollicutes in either aerobic or anaerobic environments. The optimum temperature for growth was 30 degrees C, but multiplication occurred at 18 to 37 degrees C. Strain 831-C4T catabolized glucose, but hydrolysis of arginine or urea could not be demonstrated. The genome size of strain 831-C4T was determined to be about 569 megadaltons, while the base composition (guanine-plus-cytosine content) of the DNA was 30.0 mol%. Recent studies in which we compared the 16S rRNA sequences of strain 831-C4T with those of more than 40 other mollicutes indicated that this organism is phylogenetically related to the Spiroplasma-Mycoplasma mycoides clade. Strain 831-C4T was serologically unrelated to the type strains of previously described Mycoplasma species and to 18 other unclassified sterol-requiring isolates cultivated from various animal, plant, or insect sources. Strain 831-C4T (= ATCC 49193) is the type strain of Mycoplasma lactucae sp. nov.