Spiroplasmas are bacteria in the Class Mollicutes that are frequently associated with insects and/or plants. These electron micrographs show apparent symbiotic/ commensal spiroplasma-like organisms (SLOs) in the midgut of a leafhopper, Graminella nigrifrons. SLOs found in this insect are short and mostly rod-shaped. These SLOs (S) were found in great numbers in the gut lumen (lu) sometimes associated with the gut microvilli, but unlike the plant-pathogenic mollicutes, they did not seem to invade the gut epithelium (ec) or other tissues in their leafhopper hosts. This image is related to Fig. 2 in Arch. Microbiol (2011) 193:35-44.
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