title: Adaptive surface variation in mycoplasmas.
abstract: Mycoplasmas excel as infectious agents, despite their very small genomes. In one mycoplasma species, adaptive flexibility is enhanced by an elegant genetic system that diversifies the membrane surface through a set of variable lipoproteins (Vlps). A family of vlp genes supplies divergent coding sequences and undergoes high-frequency mutations, thus creating large repertoires of surface mosaics and structural variants.
authors.affiliation: Dept of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of Missouri, Columbia 65212.
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Wise
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D008074:Lipoproteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D009174:Mycoplasma / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D008074:Lipoproteins