title: Mycoplasma viruses.
abstract: Unlike bacterial viruses that infect cells bounded by a cell wall, mycoplasma viruses have evolved to enter and propagate in mycoplasma cells bounded only by a single lipid-protein cell membrane. In addition, mycoplasmas have the smallest amount of genetic information of any known cells, so their complexity is constrained by a limited genetic coding capacity. As a consequence of these host cell differences, mycoplasma viruses have been found to have a variety of structures and replication strategies which are different from those of the bacterial viruses. This article is a critical review of mycoplasma viruses infecting the genera Acholeplasma, Spiroplasma, and Mycoplasma; included are data on classification, morphology and structure, biological and physical properties, chemical composition, and productive and lysogenic replication cycles.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University of Rochester, New York.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Maniloff
mesh_terms: D000127:Acholeplasma / Q000502:physiology; D001435:Bacteriophages / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009174:Mycoplasma / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D013149:Spiroplasma / Q000502:physiology