924 



ORDER X. MYCOPLASMATALES 



logically. Morton, Lecce, Oskay and Coy 

 (Jour. Bact., 68, 1954, 697) failed to demon- 

 strate anything but single spherical bodies 

 in electron micrographs of two other strains 

 of pleuropneumonia-like organisms also ob- 

 tained from van Roekel. Further compara- 

 tive studies are needed before the relation- 

 ships of the fowl pleuropneumonia-like 

 organisms isolated from different sources 

 and in various laboratories can be deter- 

 mined. Edward, in preliminary investiga- 

 tions, found more than one species repre- 

 sented in strains isolated from fowls; at 

 least three species would appear to be repre- 

 sented among strains isolated from the 

 continent of America (Edward, personal 

 communication, 1955). Strains described by 

 Tahey and Crawley (Canad. Jour. Comp. 

 Med., 18, 1954, 67) and by Gianforte, Fung- 

 herr and Jacobs (Poult. Sci., 34, 1955, 662) 

 differed from Mycoplasma gallinarum 

 Freundt by fermenting glucose and other 

 sugars. 



Source: Isolated from the upper respira- 

 tory tract of a fowl. 



Habitat: Found in the normal and dis- 

 eased upper respiratory tract of fowls. 

 Other strains of pleuropneumonia-like or- 

 ganisms from fowls that may or may not 

 belong to this species have been shown to be 

 etiologically implicated in a chronic respira- 

 tory disease of chickens and of turkey 

 sinusitis. 



12. Mycoplasma hominis (Freundt, 

 1953) Edward, 1955. (Human types 1 and 2, 

 Nicol and Edward, Brit. Jour. Vener. Dis., 

 29, 1953, 146 and 147; also see Edward, Jour. 

 Gen Microbiol., 10, 1954, 54 and 55; Micro- 

 myces hominis, group I, Freundt, Acta Path. 

 et Microbiol. Scand., 32, 1953, 471; also see 

 Atti del VI Congresso Internazionale di 

 Microbiologia, Roma, 1, 1953, 138; and Acta 

 Path, et Microbiol. Scand., 34, 1954, 143; 

 Edward, in Freundt, Internat. Bull, of Bact. 

 Nomen. and Taxon., 5, 1955, 73; see Edward, 

 Internat. Bull, of Bact. Nomen. andTaxon., 

 5, 1955, 90.) 



ho'mi.nis. L. noun homo man; L. gen. noun 

 hominis of man. 



Unstable and sparsely branched mycelioid 

 structure with very short, almost bacillary 

 filaments which usually measure 2 to 5 



microns in length (Freundt, op. cit., 1954, 

 127). Spherical elementary bodies have been 

 demonstrated in electron micrographs by 

 Morton, Lecce, Oskay and Coy (Jour. Bact., 

 68, 1954, 697). Slender, branching filaments 

 and strings of minute cocci have been re- 

 ported in a non-classified strain of human 

 origin by Beveridge (Med. Jour, of Aus- 

 tralia, 2, 1943, 479). Gram-negative. 



Horse-serum agar: Neither film nor spots 

 are produced. 



Horse-blood agar: Very slight hemolysis, 

 if any. 



Rabbit-serum agar : Good growth. 



Semi-solid media: Usually granular 

 growth throughout the medium. 



Broth: Very faint generalized opacity, if 

 any; small sediment. 



Carbohydrates not attacked. 



Reduction of methylene blue is slow and 

 variable. 



Tetrazolium salts are reduced under 

 anaerobic conditions. 



Aerobic, facultatively anaerobic. 



Serologically there are two distinct types 

 (Nicol and Edward, op. cit., 1953, 145). 



Pathogenicity: Type 1 is not pathogenic 

 for mice. Local abscesses are produced in 

 mice on subcutaneous inoculation of type 2 

 strains. 



Completely resistant to sulfathiazol, peni- 

 cillin and erythromycin. Moderate sensi- 

 tivity is shown to streptomycin, and the 

 susceptibility to dihydrostreptomycin is 

 variable. Highly sensitive to aureomycin, 

 chloramphenicol and terramycin. 



Comments: The occurrence of pleuro- 

 pneumonia-like organisms in the human 

 genital tract was first demonstrated by 

 Dienes and Edsall in 1937 (Proc. Soc. Exp. 

 Biol, and Med., 36, 1937, 740; also see 

 Dienes, ibid., 44, 1940, 468). Six strains iso- 

 lated by Dienes from 1939 to 1940 were later 

 classified by Edward {op. cit., 1954, 54) as 

 type 2 (now Mycoplasma hominis Edward, 

 type 2). 



Source: Isolated from human male and 

 female genital tract and anal canal; also 

 recovered in pure cultures from the blood 

 of a patient suffering from a puerperal septi- 

 cemia and from the pus of a broncho-pleural 

 fistula in another case (Stokes, Lancet, 1, 

 1955,276). 



