ArticleInfection and immunity1999
Phase variations of the Mycoplasma penetrans main surface lipoprotein increase antigenic diversity.
Article in Infection and immunity, 1999. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 40 citations in OpenAlex.
- Genital mycoplasma infections: a hidden factor in cervical cancer progression? A systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Pooled it
- Screening the receptors forFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2025Article
- Characterization of Virulence-Associated Traits in Mycoplasma penetrans Strains Acting as Likely Etiological Agents of Idiopathic Nongonococcal Urethritis.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2023Article
- Imaging Minimal Bacteria at the Nanoscale: a Reliable and Versatile Process to Perform Single-Molecule Localization Microscopy in Mycoplasmas.Microbiology spectrum · 2022Article
- The Variable Internal Structure of the Mycoplasma penetrans Attachment Organelle Revealed by Biochemical and Microscopic Analyses: Implications for Attachment Organelle Mechanism and Evolution.Journal of bacteriology · 2017Article
- Phenotypic characterization of Mycoplasma synoviae induced changes in the metabolic and sensitivity profile of in vitro infected chicken chondrocytes.BioMed research international · 2014Article
- Role of Vpma phase variation in Mycoplasma agalactiae pathogenesis.FEMS immunology and medical microbiology · 2012Article
- A novel transposon construct expressing PhoA with potential for studying protein expression and translocation in Mycoplasma gallisepticum.BMC microbiology · 2012Article
- Article
- Occurrence, plasticity, and evolution of the vpma gene family, a genetic system devoted to high-frequency surface variation in Mycoplasma agalactiae.Journal of bacteriology · 2009Article
- Multiple genome comparison within a bacterial species reveals a unit of evolution spanning two adjacent genes in a tandem paralog cluster.Molecular biology and evolution · 2008Article
- Phase and antigenic variation in bacteria.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2004Review
- Cross-species surface display of functional spirochetal lipoproteins by recombinant Borrelia burgdorferi.Infection and immunity · 2004Article
- Conservation of adjacency as evidence of paralogous operons.Nucleic acids research · 2004Article
- Multiple promoter inversions generate surface antigenic variation in Mycoplasma penetrans.Journal of bacteriology · 2003Article
- The complete genomic sequence of Mycoplasma penetrans, an intracellular bacterial pathogen in humans.Nucleic acids research · 2002Article
- Antigenic diversity in Eimeria maxima and the influence of host genetics and immunization schedule on cross-protective immunity.Infection and immunity · 2002Article
- Phase variation among major surface antigens of Mycoplasma penetrans.Infection and immunity · 2001Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Mycoplasma penetrans is a recently identified mycoplasma, isolated from urine samples collected from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients. Its presence is significantly associated with HIV infection. The major antigen recognized during natural and experimental infections is an abundant P35 lipoprotein which, upon extraction, segregates in the Triton X-114 detergent phase and is the basis of M. penetrans-specific serological assays. We report here that the P35 antigen undergoes spontaneous and reversible phase variation at high frequency, leading to heterogeneous populations of mycoplasmas, even when derived from a clonal lineage. This variation was found to be determined at the transcription level, and although this property is not unique among the members of the class Mollicutes, the mechanism by which it occurs in M. penetrans differs from those previously described for other Mycoplasma species. Indeed, the P35 phase variation was due neither to a p35 gene rearrangement nor to point mutations within the gene itself or its promoter. The P35 phase variation in the different variants obtained was concomitant with modifications in the pattern of other expressed lipoproteins, probably due to regulated expression of selected members of a gene family which was found to potentially encode similar lipoproteins. M. penetrans variants could be selected on the basis of their lack of colony immunoreactivity with a polyclonal antiserum against a Triton X-114 extract, strongly suggesting that the mechanisms involved in altering surface antigen expression might allow evasion of the humoral immune response of the infected host.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.