title: Viruses of mycoplasmas and spiroplasmas.
abstract: Acholeplasmas, mycoplasmas and spiroplasmas of the class Mollicutes have been shown to carry DNA viruses. Morphologically they occur as rods, polyhedrons with short or long tails and as enveloped spheres. These latter resemble enveloped nonlytic animal viruses and are now placed in the new family of bacterial viruses the Plasmaviridae. Viruses of mycoplasmas and spiroplasmas present a suitable experimental model for studies of the virus-cell interactions.
mesh_terms: D000127:Acholeplasma; D001435:Bacteriophages / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D004267:DNA Viruses / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D009174:Mycoplasma; D013149:Spiroplasma