| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||||
1 Respiratory and Systemic Infection Laboratory, Health Protection Agency, Specialist and Reference Microbiology Division, 61 Colindale Avenue, London NW9 5HT, UK
2 Mycoplasma Experience Ltd, 1 Norbury Road, Reigate, Surrey RH2 9BY, UK
3 Department of Veterinary Pathology, University of Liverpool, Leahurst, Neston, South Wirral CH64 7TE, UK
4 Staten Serum Institut, Mycoplasma Laboratory, Artillerivej 5, Copenhagen DK-2300, Denmark
5 Department of Microbiology, Royal Free Hospital, Pond Street, London NW3 2QG, UK
6 Department of Clinical Immunology, Royal Free Hospital, Pond Street, London NW3 2QG, UK
Correspondence
D. G. Pitcher
dave.pitcher2{at}btopenworld.com
A mycoplasma was isolated from the sputum of an immunodeficient patient with recurrent bronchitis. The isolate designated strain A39T was very fastidious and atypical for a mycoplasma in its colonial appearance. Classical biochemical tests for mycoplasma speciation could not differentiate the isolate from the pathogens Mycoplasma pneumoniae and Mycoplasma genitalium and serological identification as a recognized Mycoplasma species was lacking. Specific PCR detection for these two species was negative. Subsequently, other strains were isolated from human patients that appeared to be similar to strain A39T in their physiological and genetic characteristics. Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene placed strain A39T and other isolates in the pneumoniae group of mycoplasmas, with the highest sequence similarity to Mycoplasma testudinis (96·8 %), but with only 93·0 % similarity to M. pneumoniae and M. genitalium. Examination of the 16S–23S rRNA internally transcribed spacer sequence, protein electrophoresis profile, genome size and serological reactions indicated that this organism represents a novel species, for which the name Mycoplasma amphoriforme sp. nov. is proposed, with strain A39T (=NCTC 11740T=ATCC BAA-992T) as the type strain.
The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the 16S rRNA gene and internally transcribed spacer sequences are AY531655 and AY531657, respectively, for strain A39T and AY531656 and AY531658, respectively, for strain M5572.
Details of the antisera used for the serological reactions and figures showing the colonial appearance and electron micrographs of cells of Mycoplasma amphoriforme A39T, SDS-PAGE separation of proteins of Mycoplasma species, agarose gel separation of ITS and M. amphoriforme-specific 16S rRNA gene sequence amplicons, and PFGE of strain A39T and Mycoplasma pneumoniae M129 are available as supplementary material in IJSEM Online.
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  J. M. Hatchel and M. F. Balish Attachment organelle ultrastructure correlates with phylogeny, not gliding motility properties, in Mycoplasma pneumoniae relatives Microbiology, January 1, 2008; 154(1): 286 - 295. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 R. F. Whitcomb Evolution and devolution of minimal standards for descriptions of species of the class Mollicutes: analysis of two Spiroplasma descriptions Int J Syst Evol Microbiol, February 1, 2007; 57(2): 201 - 206. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. M. Hatchel, R. S. Balish, M. L. Duley, and M. F. Balish Ultrastructure and gliding motility of Mycoplasma amphoriforme, a possible human respiratory pathogen Microbiology, July 1, 2006; 152(7): 2181 - 2189. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
| INT J SYST EVOL MICROBIOL | MICROBIOLOGY | J GEN VIROL |
| J MED MICROBIOL | ALL SGM JOURNALS | |
