A brief account of Mycoplasma

1. MYCOPLASMA
Dr. Saji Mariam George
Associate Professor,
Assumption College Autonomous
Changanacherry

2. MYCOPLASMA
• Discovered by Nocard &
Roux(1898)
• Earlier known as
Pleuropneumonia – like
Organisms (PPLO) because of
their resemblance to
organisms causing
Pleuropneumonia in cattle.
Edmond Nocard & Pierre Paul
Emile Roux

3. • Simplest prokaryotic organisms
• Intermediate between bacteria and viruses
• Size varies from 0.1 - 0.15 µm
• They lack cell wall – hence they are
pleomorphic or variable in shape – may be
granular, spherical, pear – shaped or
filamentous.

4. • When grown on solid
culture medium, colonies
of Mycoplasma
pneumoniae showed
‘fried egg’ like
appearance.
• Non- motile, but some
forms show gliding
movements.
• Usually facultative
anaerobes, a few are
obligate anaerobes.
Mycoplasma colonies with fried-egg
appearance
• uploaded by Magdy Amin

5. • The genome is simplest found in prokaryotes
• Genetic material is present in the form of a
nucleoid – consists of single, circular
molecule of DNA.
• Cytoplasm contains 70 S ribosomes, RNA,
proteins, lipids and many enzymes.

6. STRUCTURE OF MYCOPLASMA
Image : https://www.pinterest.com/

7. • Heterotrophic in nutrition - most of them are
parasitic in plants and animals including man.
• Some are saprotrophs .
• Reproduce by binary fission and budding.

8. THANK YOU