Mycoplasma / Mollicutes Flashcards
What is another name for Mycoplasma? what does the name mean?
- Mollicutes
- Soft skinned, (mollis = soft, cutis = skin)
What does Mycoplasma / Mollicutes lack?
- Cell wall
Does Mycoplasma stain gram positive or negative? why?
- Stain gram negative
- Lack of cell wall and only possess a plasma membrane
Lack of cell wall means they are sensitive to what?
- Osmotic lysis
What is in the plasma membrane ?
- Sterols
What does Sterols do to the plasma membrane?
- strengthen the plasma membrane
What is meant when Mycoplasma is stated as pleomorphoic?
- they have variation in the size and shape of cells - big, small, long, branched…
How is Mycoplasma pleomorphoic?
- No cell wall so shape is varied
True or false Mycoplasma are the smallest living cells?
- True
What is the diameter of Mycoplasma?
- 0.12 micro m - 0.25 micro m
How are Mycoplasma common contaminants in tissue culture?
- small size allows them to squeeze into different shapes and spaces.
- makes them hard to remove from tissue culture growth medium and animal products by filtration
Mycoplasma are parasites of what?
- Eukaryotes
What does Mycoplasma require to facilitate growth in lab media
- They require sterols
What do Mycoplasma resemble when looked at on solid agar media
- fried egg shaped colonies
Does Mycoplasma have large or small genomes?
- Small genomes
What is the amount of DNA of mycoplasma?
- Close to the smallest amount of DNA capable of encoding a free-living cell
What is Mycoplasma?
- Genus of bacteria
- Parasite of animal mucous membranes
- Over 60 species recognised
What is Ureaplasma?
- Genera
- (T-Strain Mycoplasma) - microaerophilic
- Require cholesterol and urea for growth
- Maybe associated with nongonococcal urethritis
What is Acholeplasma?
- Genera
- Widely distributed animal parasites
- Able to grow in absence of sterols
- Common contaminants of cell lines in tissue culture
What is Anaeroplasma?
- Genera
- Strict anaerobes
- Inhabit bovine or ovine rumen
What is Spiroplasma?
- Genera
- Holical, motile
- Parasites on arthropods and plants (e.g. citru stubborn and corn stunt diseases), but a few cause disease in animals
Name some important human pathogen Mycoplasma species
- Mycoplasma pneumonia
- Genital Mycoplasmas
- Mycoplasma penetrans
Give an outline of Mycoplasma pneumonia
- Human pathogen species
- respiratory tract infection
- Diagnosis by pathchy diffuse X-Ray, serological tests or culture
- Treatment is with antibiotics that do not target the cell wall
- Treatments include Erythromycin, doxycycline ( not children), azithromycin
Give an outline of Genital Mycoplasmas
- Human pathogen
- Mycoplasma genitalium.
- Causes of non-gonococcal (non-chlamydial) urethritis NGU
- associated with infertility in men
- associated with cervicitis and endometritis and tubal factor infertility in women
- Treated with doxycycline / erythromycin and/or azithromycin
- Drug resistance is rising
