Abstract
The genus Mycoplasma, a group of free-living, wall-less prokaryotes includes more than 100 species of which dozens are primary pathogens of humans and domesticated animals. Mycoplasma species isolated from wildlife are rarely investigated but could provide a fuller picture of the evolutionary history and diversity of this genus. In 2013 several isolates from wild Caprinae were tentatively assigned to a new species, Mycoplasma (M.) feriruminatoris sp. nov., characterized by an unusually rapid growth in vitro and close genetic proximity to ruminant pathogenic species. We suspected that atypical isolates recently collected from Alpine ibex in France belonged to this new species. The present study was undertaken to verify this hypothesis and to further characterize the French ibex isolates. Phylogenetic analyses were performed to identify the isolates and position them in trees containing several other mycoplasma species pathogenic to domesticated ruminants. Population diversity was characterized by genomic macrorestriction and by examining the capacity of different strains to produce capsular polysaccharides, a feature now known to vary amongst mycoplasma species pathogenic to ruminants. This is the first report of M. feriruminatoris isolation from Alpine ibex in France. Phylogenetic analyses further suggested that M. feriruminatoris might constitute a 4th species in a genetic cluster that so far contains only important ruminant pathogens, the so-called Mycoplasma mycoides cluster. A PCR assay for specific identification is proposed. These French isolates were not clonal, despite being collected in a restricted region of the Alps, which signifies a considerable diversity of the new species. Strains were able to concomitantly produce two types of capsular polysaccharides, β-(1→6)-galactan and β-(1→6)-glucan, with variation in their respective ratio, a feature never before described in mycoplasmas.
Highlights
The genus Mycoplasma contains a group of free-living, wall-less prokaryotes characterized by small genomes (0.58–1.38 Mbp) with a low G + C content (23–40 mol%), small cell size and a strict exogenous-sterol nutritional requirement for growth
Several isolates collected from wild Caprinae, namely 4 Alpine ibex (Capra ibex) bred in Berlin zoo as well as one Rocky Mountain goat (Oreamnos americanus) in the USA, were tentatively assigned to a new mycoplasma species characterized by unusually rapid growth in vitro (Jores et al, 2013)
The 27 isolates from caprine ibex included in this study belong to the M. feriruminatoris species and not to M. mycoides subsp. capri (Mmc), as originally thought based on membrane filtration dotimmunoblotting test (MF-dot) profiles
Summary
The genus Mycoplasma contains a group of free-living, wall-less prokaryotes characterized by small genomes (0.58–1.38 Mbp) with a low G + C content (23–40 mol%), small cell size and a strict exogenous-sterol nutritional requirement for growth. Mmc and Mcc belong to the so-called Mycoplasma (M.) mycoides phylogenetic cluster that includes five closely related pathogenic (sub)species of ruminants (Cottew et al, 1987), the taxonomy of which was amended in 2009 (Manso-Silvan et al, 2009). The 5th taxon of the cluster, M. leachii, is seldom isolated and is described as a bovine pathogen and a chimera between mycoides and capricolum species (Manso-Silvan et al, 2007; Tardy et al, 2009) Both its proximity to a cluster of taxa responsible for severe diseases and its rapid growth make M. feriruminatoris sp. In the study by Gonzalez-Candela, unassigned mycoplasma species represented up to 6.2% of 321 sampled Spanish ibex (Gonzalez-Candela et al, 2007)
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