Mycoplasma agassizii

Mycoplasma agassizii is a species of bacteria in the genus Mycoplasma. This genus of bacteria lacks a cell wall around their cell membrane. Without a cell wall, they are unaffected by many common antibiotics such as penicillin or other beta-lactam antibiotics that target cell wall synthesis. Mycoplasma are the smallest bacterial cells yet discovered, can survive without oxygen and are typically about 0.1 ÃŽÂ¼m in diameter.

Cultures are available from the Mollicutes Culture Collection (Curators Dr. J.K. Davis and M.K. Davidson, University of Florida). This mycoplasma species was originally isolated from a species of desert tortoise Gopherus agassizii which was named for by Louis Agassiz.

Since its discovery, it has been recovered from other species of tortoises:

• Geochelone chilensis or Chaco tortoise
• Geochelone pardalis or Leopard tortoise
• Geochelone elegans or Indian star tortoise
• Geochelone forstenii or Travancore tortoise
• Geochelone sulcate or African spurred tortoise
• Gopherus agassizii or desert tortoise
• Gopherus polyphemus or Gopher tortoise
• Indotestudo species
• Terrapene carolina bauri or Florida box turtle
• Testudo graeca graeca or Spur-thighed tortoise
• Testudo graeca ibera or Spur-thighed tortoise

The type strain is PS6 = ATCC 700616 = CCUG 53180 and available from the Mollicutes Culture Collection, University of Florida.

References

External links

• Type strain of Mycoplasma agassizii at BacDive - the Bacterial Diversity Metadatabase