期刊名称：Annals of Agricultural and Environmental Medicine
印刷版ISSN：1232-1966
电子版ISSN：1898-2263
出版年度：2015
卷号：22
期号：4
页码：589-593
DOI：10.5604/12321966.1185758
出版社：Institute of Agricultural Medicine in Lublin
摘要：Spiroplasma is a genus of wall-less, low-GC, small Gram-positive bacteria of the internal contractile cytoskeleton, with helicalmorphology and motility. The genus is classified within the class Mollicutes. Spiroplasma / host interactions can be classifiedas commensal, pathogenic or mutualist. The majority of spiroplasmas are found to be commensals of insects, arachnids,crustaceans or plants, whereas a small number of species are pathogens of plants, insects, and crustaceans. Insects areparticularly rich sources of spiroplasmas. The bacteria are common in haematophagous arthropods: deerflies, horseflies,mosquitoes, and in ticks, where they may occur abundantly in salivary glands. The ability of spiroplasmas to propagate inrodents was experimentally proven, and Spiroplasma infections have been reported recently in humans. Some authors havepurported an etiological role of Spiroplasma in causing transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), but convincingproof is lacking. The possibility for humans and other vertebrates to be infected with Spiroplasma spp. in natural conditionsis largely unknown, as well as the possibility of the transmission of these bacteria by ticks and haematophagous insects.Nevertheless, in the light of new data, such possibilities cannot be excluded
