Immunology of Mycoplasma Infection

“Mycoplasma(s)” is the trivial name for organisms in class Mollicutes, which contains two families and five genera (Freundt, 1974a; Edward, 1974). These organisms are distinguished from bacteria by the absence of cell wall and small size, with a genome mass of 4-8 x 108 dations (Bak et al., 1969). Although they resemble large viruses in size and filterability, unlike viruses they are able to grow on cell-free media. The lack of a cell wall also accounts for the resistance to penicillins which characterizes all mycoplasmas. This class of microorganisms is thus unique in that it includes the smallest free-living forms to be found in nature.