Mycoplasma is one of several genera of bacteria within the class of mollicutes. Mollicutes are minute parasites or commensals of humans, animals and plants; the over 100 recognized species of the genus mycoplasma are by definition restricted to vertebrate hosts, where they are known as pathogens for many diseases (e.g. pneumonia caused by Mycoplasma pneumoniae).
Electron microscope image of mycoplasma colony on cell surface2
Mycoplasma cells are very small and lack a cell wall. Because of this, they are unaffected by antibiotics that target cell wall synthesis. Mycoplasmas have genomes in a size range of 0.58 – 1.38 megabase-pairs with low GC-content (18 – 40 mol%), the smallest of all prokaryotes with the capability of autoreplication.
As aerobic or facultative anaerobic organisms, mycoplasmas are ideally aligned to their hosts and thus find optimum growth conditions in cell cultures (37°C) for this reason.
Mycoplasma contamination has been one of the main problems faced by cell biology research. Mycoplasmas frequently occur as contaminants in cell cultures owing to their parasitic properties and ability to conform to host cells1.
Mycoplasma cells are very small, typically only 0.2 – 0.3 μm in size, and vary in form. Mycoplasmas can therefore neither be detected with a conventional microscope nor be eliminated by sterile filtration.
Mycoplasmas may long remain undiscovered owing to their lack of macroscopic effect. In routine work with antibiotics in particular, mycoplasma contamination may go undetected for a long time since bacterial contamination is selectively suppressed by the addition of antibiotics while the mycoplasmas introduced at the same time can multiply unhindered.
Given this, it is hardly surprising that a number of studies have shown mycoplasma contamination levels of up to 80% for all cell banks and up to 40% for cultures. A possible reason for these high contamination levels is considered to be the introduction of serum or trypsin, from laboratory staff, foreign cell cultures or ultimately the animals from which the cell culture was harvested3.
Since the presence of contamination can distort the accuracy of results gained from cell cultures or, in the worst case, impair cell growth to such an extent that the whole culture is lost, cell cultures must routinely be checked for mycoplasma contamination. Mycoplasma contamination must be excluded in cell transfection in particular, since the negative effects of the contamination on cell growth and metabolism cause transfection efficiency to fall dramatically.
To ensure that the many problems caused by mycoplasma contamination of cell cultures are finally a thing of the past, Biontex supplies the fetal bovine serum FBS MycoFREE (cat. no. M010, M011, M012) and Trypsin MycoVIR (cat. no. M020, M021, M022) in premium quality and 100% mycoplasma-free. This is achieved by a special film radiation process using UV light for selective destruction of nucleic acids, which thus completely eliminates mycoplasmas and unenveloped viruses while leaving proteins and other elements unharmed. The process is far lower-impact than conventional gamma radiation. However, please note that products from other manufacturers are only tested for contamination above the detection limit. Biontex's fetal bovine serum FBS MycoFREE (cat. no. M010, M011, M012) and Trypsin MycoVIR (cat. no. M020, M021, M022), on the other hand, are guaranteed 100% mycoplasma-free!
In addition, we supply a detection kit, MycoSPY™ (cat. no. M030) and removal kit, MycoRAZOR® (cat. no. M040) for mycoplasmas, which achieve excellent results with both established cell lines and primary cells.
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