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Mycoplasma melaleucae sp. nov., a Sterol-Requiring Mollicute from Flowers of Several Tropical Plants

JOSEPH G. TULLY^*, DAVID L. ROSE¹, RANDOLPH E. McCOY^2,, PATRICIA CARLE³, JOSEPH M. BOVɳ, ROBERT F. WHITCOMB⁴ and WILLIAM G. WEISBURG⁵

¹Mycoplasma Section, Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Frederick Cancer Research Facility, Frederick, Maryland 21701
²University of Florida Agricultural Research and Education Center, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33314
³Laboratoire de Biologie Cellulaire et Moléculaire, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Pont-de-la-Maye, France
⁴Insect Pathology Laboratory, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland 20705
⁵Gene-Trak Systems, Framingham, Massachusetts 01701

^* Corresponding author.

ABSTRACT

Three sterol-requiring mollicutes from floral surfaces of two tropical plant species (Melaleuca quinquenervia and Melaleuca decora) and a single isolate from a flower of the silk oak (Grevillea robusta) were serologically indistinguishable. Strain M1^T (T = type strain), isolated from Melaleuca quinquenervia, was chosen for characterization. Light and electron microscopic observations of strain M1^T revealed nonhelical, nonmotile, pleomorphic coccoid cells surrounded by a single cytoplasmic membrane. No evidence of a cell wall was observed. The organism grew well in SP-4 medium, but no sustained growth occurred in conventional mycoplasma media containing horse serum. The optimum temperature for growth was 23°C, but multiplication occurred over a temperature range of 10 to 30°C. Growth was not observed at temperatures above 30°C. Strain M1^T and related strains (strains M5, M10, and SO1) catabolized glucose but hydrolyzed neither arginine nor urea. The size of the strain M1^T genome was about 561 megadaltons, while the guanine-plus-cytosine content of the DNA was about 27.0 mol%. The organism was serologically unrelated to the type strains of the 80 previously recognized Mycoplasma species or to 18 other unclassified sterol-requiring strains cultivated from animal, plant, or insect sources. Recent sequencing studies of 16S rRNA demonstrated that strain M1^T is a member of a clade that contains the type species of the genus Mycoplasma. Strain M1 (= ATCC 49191) is the type strain of Mycoplasma melaleucae sp. nov.