Mycoplasma mycoides

Mycoplasma mycoides
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Bacteria
Phylum:	Tenericutes  or Firmicutes
Class:	Mollicutes
Order:	Mycoplasmatales
Family:	Mycoplasmataceae
Genus:	Mycoplasma Nowak 1929
Species
See article

Mycoplasma mycoides is a bacterial species of the genus Mycoplasma in the class Mollicutes. This microorganism is a parasite that lives in ruminants (cattle and goats), causing lung disease.

Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. mycoides Small Colony (SC) type

The subspecies "Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. mycoides Small Colony (SC) type" (MmmSC) is known as the agent of contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP), a contagious lung disease of large and small ruminants. It was first isolated in 1898 by Edmond Nocard and others and the first isolated mycoplasma at all.^[1][2]

Formerly M. mycoides subsp. mycoides was known as Asterococcus mycoides.^[3]

The Mycoplasma mycoides cluster

Mycoplasma mycoides is part of the Mycoplasma mycoides cluster, a group of closely related infectious mycoplasmas, first named by Weisburg et al.^[4]

The cluster sensu stricto contains the genera Mycoplasma mycoides and Mycoplasma capricolum and comprises six species and subspecies:

• M. mycoides subsp. mycoides biotype Small Colony (MmmSC)
• M. mycoides subsp. mycoides biotype Large Colony (MmmLC)
• M. mycoides subsp. capri (Mmc)
• M. capricolum subsp. capricolum (Mcc)
• M. capricolum subsp. capripneumoniae(Mccp)
• Mycoplasma sp. 'bovine group 7' (MBG7)

The last one is disputed with respect to the question of being a separate species.^[5][6]

In 2009 L. Manso-Silván et al. proposed to consider M. mycoides subsp. mycoides biotype Large Colony as equal with M. mycoides subsp. capri. Furthermore they proposed the name Mycoplasma leachii sp. nov. for Mycoplasma sp. 'bovine group 7' as a separate species.^[5]

Minimal genome project

In 2010, as part of the Minimal Genome Project, a team of the J. Craig Venter Institute synthesized a modified version of the 1,000,000 base pair M. mycoides genome and implanted it into a DNA-free bacterial shell of Mycoplasma capricolum; the resulting organism was shown to be self-replicating.^[7][8]

References

1. ^ Nocard, E.I.E. & Roux, E.; Le microbe de la péripneumonie. Ann Inst Pasteur 12, 240-262. (Translated as ‘The microbe of pleuropneumonia’ in Rev Infect Dis 12, 354-358 (1990))
2. ^ Cheng X, Nicolet J, Poumarat F, Regalla J, Thiaucourt F, Frey J (December 1995). "Insertion element IS1296 in Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. mycoides small colony identifies a European clonal line distinct from African and Australian strains". Microbiology (Reading, Engl.) 141 (Pt 12): 3221–3228. doi:10.1099/13500872-141-12-3221. PMID 8574413. 
3. ^ Plackett P, Buttery SH (November 1958). "A galactan from Mycoplasma mycoides". Nature 182 (4644): 1236–1237. doi:10.1038/1821236a0. PMID 13590288. 
4. ^ Weisburg WG, Tully JG, Rose DL et al. (December 1989). "A phylogenetic analysis of the mycoplasmas: basis for their classification". J. Bacteriol. 171 (12): 6455–67. PMC 210534. PMID 2592342. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=210534. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Manso-Silván L, Vilei EM, Sachse K, Djordjevic SP, Thiaucourt F, Frey J (June 2009). "Mycoplasma leachii sp. nov. as a new species designation for Mycoplasma sp. bovine group 7 of Leach, and reclassification of Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. mycoides LC as a serovar of Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. capri". Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol. 59 (Pt 6): 1353–1358. doi:10.1099/ijs.0.005546-0. PMID 19502315. 
6. ^ Thiaucourt F, Lorenzon S, David A, Breard A (March 2000). "Phylogeny of the Mycoplasma mycoides cluster as shown by sequencing of a putative membrane protein gene". Vet. Microbiol. 72 (3–4): 251–268. doi:10.1016/S0378-1135(99)00204-7. PMID 10727835. 
7. ^ "Sizing up the 'synthetic cell'". Nature. May 2010. doi:10.1038/news.2010.255. http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100520/full/news.2010.255.html. 
8. ^ Henderson, Mark (May 21, 2010). "Scientists create artificial life in laboratory". The Times (London). http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/biology_evolution/article7132299.ece