[Molecular genetic approaches to the study of the persistence of pathogenic Mycoplasma]

The inhibition of the amplification of different regions of Mycoplasma pneumonia genome, depending on the conditions of cultivation, was observed with the use of polymerase chain reaction. A protein, stably associated with DNA, is responsible for this inhibitory effect. When selectively associated with different sites of DNA, the protein seems to be capable to inhibit the expression of genes, encoding pathogenicity factors of mycoplasmas and thus promoting their transformation into persistent forms.