acholeplasmataceae acholeplasmataceae acholeplasmataceae is a family of bacteria. it is the only family in the order acholeplasmatales, placed in the class mollicutes. the family comprises the genera acholeplasma and phytoplasma. phytoplasma has the candidatus status, because members still could not be cultured. acholeplasmataceae acholeplasma laidwalii cells and extracellular vesicles scientific classification domain: bacteria phylum: mycoplasmatota class: mollicutes order: acholeplasmatales family: acholeplasmataceaeedward & freundt 1970 genera acholeplasma alteracholeplasma haploplasma mariniplasma paracholeplasma "ca. phytoplasma" "pluraplasma" synonyms "sapromycetaceae" sabin 1941 "saprophytaceae" sabin 1941 etymology: the names acholeplasmataceae and acholetoplasmatales are derived from the greek a = not, cholè = bile and plasma = anything moulded or formed. species in the order acholeplasmatales can grow in a medium without cholesterol, unlike species in the order mycoplasmatales. cholesterol, a sterol, is an important component of the cell membrane of mycoplasmas, whereas in acholeplasmas and in bacteria in general it is absent. characteristics members of acholeplasmatales are facultative anaerobic. they are parasites or commensals of vertebrates, insects, or plants; some are saprophytes. phytoplasmas colonize the phloem sieve elements of vascular plants, causing diseases. they are transmitted by sap-sucking insects (primarily leafhoppers, planthoppers, and psyllids ), living in the gut, haemolymph, salivary gland and other organs. like other mollicutes, they show a high host specificity. classification in the first taxonomy of mollicutes, the classification was based on requiring or not requiring cholesterol for growth. the old order mycoplasmatales consisted of two families: mycoplasmataceae, which requires cholesterol, and the sterol-nonrequiring acholeplasmataceae. in view of the many properties in which the acholeplasmas distinguish from species in mycoplasmataceae and spiroplasmataceae, freundt et al. proposed in 1984 to elevate the family acholeplasmataceae to the ordinal rank acholeplasmatales, thus separating it from mycoplasmatales. in 1987, the division in sterol requiring and not requiring changed with the addition of a third order, anaeroplasmatales, taking into account that dependence on anaerobic growth conditions is an important characteristic. the currently accepted taxonomy is based on the list of prokaryotic names with standing in nomenclature (lpsn) and national center for biotechnology information (ncbi) 16s rrna based ltp_12_2021 gtdb 07-rs207 by genome taxonomy database acholeplasmatales haploplasma alteracholeplasma paracholeplasma anaeroplasma acholeplasma acholeplasmataceae acholeplasmatales anaeroplasmataceae "ca. pelethenecus" "ca. avacholeplasma" anaeroplasma uba5453 paracholeplasma acholeplasmataceae haploplasma acholeplasma alteracholeplasma "ca. phytoplasma"