Mycoplasma leachii PG50

Mycoplasma genus currently comprises more than 120 obligate parasitic species found in the wide spectrum of hosts, including humans, animals, insects and plants. The primary habitats of human and animal mycoplasmas are mucous membranes of the respiratory and urogenital tracts, eyes, mammary glands and the joints. Infection that proceeds through attachment of the bacteria to the host cell via specialized surface proteins, adhesins, and subsequent invasion, results in prolonged intracellular persistence that may cause lethality. Once detected in association with their eukaryotic host tissue, most of mycoplasmas can be cultivated in the absence of a host if their extremely fastidious growth requirements are met. All mycoplasmas are phenotypically distinguished from other bacteria by their small size (0.3-0.8 micron in diameter) and lack of a cell wall. The latter is one of the major traits that puts them in the separate taxonomic group of microorganisms, class Mollicutes. Most mycoplasmas are non-motile. Cell division proceeds via normal binary fission or via elongation of a parent cell to multinucleate filaments and subsequent breakup to coccoid bodies.M.leachii, formerly known as Mycoplasma sp. bovine group 7 of Leach (MBG7), causes arthritis and mastitis in cattle. This organism has also been isolated from small ruminants, as well as healthy cattle. It belongs to the Mycoplasma mycoides phylogenetic cluster of ruminant mycoplasmal pathogens. Strain PG50 was isolated in Australia 1963 from an arthritic joint of a calf. It can grow in pure culture. To minimize mutational heterogeneity in the genome sample, DNA was prepared from an axenic culture propagated from a single colony isolate (MU clone 8) (adapted from PMID 19502315). (EBI Integr8)