# ORGANIZATION AND EXPRESSION OF MYCOPLASMA GENES

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA · 1987 · $77,527

## Abstract

Mycoplasmas are the smallest known free-living organisms and include
genetically diverse pathogens causing a variety of chronic pulmonary,
genitourinary and rheumatologic disorders in animal species, including
man.  Immunologic mechanisms are strongly implicated in mycoplasma
pathogenesis, and substantial information has been gained pertaining to
specific antigenic structures of potential disease relevance.  In addition,
antigenic relationships among species of pathogenic mycoplasmas may define
products expressed from related genomic regions of this organism.  These
structures are important because they may offer a means of immunologically
detecting specific genetic relationships in organisms highly refractory to
classic genetic analysis.  The long term objective of this proposal is to
identify and characterize mycoplasma genomic structures that synthesize
selected antigens in order to (1) obtain genetic and structural information
on selected antigens of relevance to mycoplasma immunopathology, (2) define
antigenic and corresponding genomic relationships among mycoplasma species,
and (3) investigate the physical organization of the mycoplasma genome.
The organism proposed for this study is Mycoplasma hyorhinis, an
arthritogenic pathogen that has been extensively studied in vitro to
elucidate many molecular and immunological details of the mycoplasma-host
cell interaction.  This organism is antigenically related to a large group
of mycoplasmas including numerous pathogenic species.  An established
library of recombinant bacteriophage containing segments of the 750 kbp
genome of M. hyorhinis will be screened by recently developed
immunological, immunochemical, and molecular biological procedures to
identify, catalogue, and characterize mycoplasma genomic sequences encoding
antigens expressed in the bacterial host Escherichia coli.  The library
will be screened with a large existing library of monoclonal antibodies
directed against preselected specificities of important disease relevance,
as well as polyclonal antibodies recognizing antigens shared among species,
and serum from arthritic animals to define immunodominant antigens during
disease.  Antigens expressed from selected recombinant genomic sequences,
will be further characterized and the genomic structures themselves will be
used to generate specific probes capable of detecting species-specific or
species-shared genomic sequences in a cluster of antigenically related
pathogenic mycoplasmas.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3157287
- **Project number:** 5R01AR035587-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA
- **SAM.gov UEI:** SZPJL5ZRCLF4
- **Principal Investigator:** KIM S. WISE
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1987
- **Award amount:** $77,527
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1985-04-01 → 1988-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3157287

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3157287, ORGANIZATION AND EXPRESSION OF MYCOPLASMA GENES (5R01AR035587-03). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3157287. Licensed CC0.

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