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mycoplasma

noun

  1. any of a genus (Mycoplasma of the family Mycoplasmataceae) of pleomorphic gram-negative chiefly nonmotile bacteria that lack a cell wall and are mostly parasitic usually in mammals
L1334077 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

noun

Etymology: From translingual Mycoplasma, from Latin, from Ancient Greek μύκης (múkēs, “fungus”) + πλάσμα (plásma, “-shaped”). Equivalent to myco- + plasma.

  1. Any infectious bacterium of the genus Mycoplasma, often specifically Mycoplasma pneumoniae

    Officials are investigating whether the illness was caused by mycoplasma, a common bacteria known as walking pneumonia.

    It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted.