Mycoplasma or Mollicutes

Mycoplasma (also called Mollicutes) are very small (0.1-0.5 um), pleomorphic (variable-shaped), Gram-negative micro-organisms, first isolated by Nocard and co-workers in 1898 from the pleural fluid of cattle suffering bovine pleuropneumonia. Their single most distinctive feature is that they completely lack a cell wall, which is why they appear as a characteristic 'fried egg' shape in culture; their DNA also has a lower guanine-cytosine content than that of true bacteria. Mycoplasma cause disease in both plants (e.g. little leaf of brinjal, witches' broom of …