What is the Full Form of PPLO

Answer: The full form of PPLO is “pleuropneumonia like organisms”. It belongs to the genus Bacteria. The PPLO are also termed Mycoplasma. The reason behind naming mycoplasmas as PPLO is because they are free-living organisms and simple prokaryotes. The mycoplasmas do not have a cell wall, and first, it was discovered to be present in the pleural fluid of the animals who were suffering from pleuropneumonia; hence the name PPLO stands for Pleuropneumonia organisms. It was first discovered by Louis Pasteur in 1930 when he was dealing with pleuropneumonia in cattle. It is a unicellular organism which comprises a single cell. Due to its absence of a cell wall, it is resistant to various antibiotic drugs like penicillin. 400 different types of mycoplasmas pieces are present.

The characteristics of mycoplasma are:

• There is no cell wall present around the cell membranes, hence they are pleomorphic
• There is an absence of peptidoglycan
• They are naturally resistant to antibiotics because most antibiotic targets cell wall synthesis,

but the mycoplasmas do not have a cell wall. Hence they are resistant

• Microplasmas can be saprophytic or parasitic

The size of  PPLO ranges from 0.1 micron – to 1 micron.

The range in which the size of viruses lies is 0.02 microns to 0.4 microns. So viruses are usually smaller than Mycoplasma. Mycoplasma has developed a mechanism that can make them survive even in the lack of oxygen, and they are highly pathogenic to animals and plants. They are pathogenic and cause lung infections. It is the main causal agent for community-acquired pneumonia. Mycoplasma is also pathogenic to plants. These microorganisms cause witch’s broom and yellow disease in the majority of the crop plants. They are also termed as the joker of the plant Kingdom because they lack a cell wall and change their shape according to the necessity.