mycoplasma

plural mycoplasmas · plural mycoplasmata

1. countableuncountableAny infectious bacterium of the genus Mycoplasma, often specifically Mycoplasma pneumoniae

   Officials are investigating whether the illness was caused by mycoplasma, a common bacteria known as walking pneumonia.

   2007 January 5, Katie Zezima, “More Rhode Island Schools Closed in Disease Outbreak”, in New York Times

   1 more example

   It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted.

   2013 March 28, Harold J. Morowitz, “The Smallest Cell”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 2, archived from the original on 04 Jan 2017, page 83