Mycoplasma fermentans

Discovery

Mycoplasma fermentans was first described by Ruiter and Wentholt in 1952 from isolate of a human genital infection, which led to the initial name G-strain. In 1954 D.G. Edward identified a strain of mycoplasma in his laboratory isolated from 91 different samples collected from humans that differed in its ability to ferment sugars, he labeled this strain human type 3 as it was the 3rd strain he found in the group of samples. This was later identified to be the same strain as Ruiter and Wentholt's G-strain. In 1955 Edward proposed a new naming structure renaming his human type 3 strain and Ruiter and Wentholt's G-strain to M. fermentans due to its believed unique ability amongst the group to ferment multiple sugars. It has since been found that several other mycoplasma are capable of fermenting multiple sugar sources.