Mollicutes
Sign in to saveMollicutes is a class of bacteria distinguished by the absence of a cell wall and its peptidoglycan. The word Mollicutes is derived from Latin '''' 'soft, pliable' and '''' 'skin'. Individuals are very small, typically only 0.2–0.3 μm (200–300 nm) in size and have a very small genome size. They vary in form, although most have sterols that make the cell membrane somewhat more rigid. Many move about by gliding, but members of the genus Spiroplasma are helical and move by twisting. The best-known genus in the Mollicutes is Mycoplasma, though it has been split in 2018 into several genera. Colonie
~22 min read
Encyclopedic overview
23 sectionsContents
- Origin and evolution to parasitic life
- Proliferation
- History of the classification
- Three divisions of the bacteria
- The phylum for Mollicutes
- The 2018 ''Mycoplasma'' split
- Phylogeny
- Species which infect humans
- Pathogenicity
- P1 antigen
- Sexually transmitted infections
- Infant disease
- Links to cancer
- Infection and host cell transformation
- Possible intracellular mechanisms
- Karyotypic changes related to infections
- Partial reversibility of malignant transformations
- Connections to cancer ''in vivo'' and future research
- Types of cancer associated
- Laboratory contaminant
- See also
- References
- External links
Mollicutes is a class of bacteria distinguished by the absence of a cell wall and its peptidoglycan. The word Mollicutes is derived from Latin '''' 'soft, pliable' and '''' 'skin'. Individuals are very small, typically only 0.2–0.3 μm (200–300 nm) in size and have a very small genome size. They vary in form, although most have sterols that make the cell membrane somewhat more rigid. Many move about by gliding, but members of the genus Spiroplasma are helical and move by twisting. The best-known genus in the Mollicutes is Mycoplasma, though it has been split in 2018 into several genera. Colonies show the typical "fried-egg" appearance.
Mollicutes can be parasitic or saprotrophic. They can be parasites of various animals and plants, living on or in the host's cells. Many cause diseases in humans, attaching to cells in the respiratory or urogenital tracts, particularly species of Mycoplasma and Ureaplasma. Phytoplasma and Spiroplasma are plant pathogens associated with insect vectors.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Mollicutes” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.