Mycoplasmas: Molecular Biology, Pathogenicity, and Strategies for Control

Mycoplasmas, or mollicutes, form a large group of prokaryotes that are capable of infecting humans, animals, and plants. Despite the fact that these microbes lack a rigid cell wall (which make them clearly distinct from gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria), they are not just “round bags,” as Josy Bove so aptly remarked in the foreword to this book. In fact, some mycoplasma species have quite unique shapes and possess specialized structures for host cell adherence. This new book on mycoplasmas has been prepared by 34 authors from six countries who summarize and discuss numerous topics of current significance in mycoplasmology, including aspects of molecular biology (chapters 1–4), cell biology (chapters 5–8), and pathogenicity and control (chapters 9–16).