Mycoplasmatales is an order of bacteria in the class

Mollicutes Mollicutes is a class of bacteria distinguished by the absence of a cell wall and its peptidoglycan. The word "Mollicutes" is derived from the Latin ' (meaning "soft" or "pliable"), and ' (meaning "skin"). Individuals are very small, typically on ...

. The order consists of the families Spiroplasmataceae and

Mycoplasmataceae Mycoplasmataceae is a family of bacteria in the order Mycoplasmatales. This family consists of ''Mycoplasma'' and four more genera. In 1967, the order Mycoplasmatales was incorporated into the class Mollicutes. Sexually-transmitted species ...

. As currently (2025) defined by LPSN, this class is synonymous to Entomoplasmatales, a class originally intended to include the arthropod-associated mollicutes. Newer

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

studies have found that Entomoplasmatales was not

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

like Tully had believed, but

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

. The family Entomoplasmataceae of Tully was also paraphyletic by the exclusion of ''Mycoplasma''.

Phylogeny

The currently accepted taxonomy is based on the

List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN) is an online database that maintains information on the naming and taxonomy of prokaryotes, following the taxonomy requirements and rulings of the International Code of Nomenclatu ...

(LPSN) and

National Center for Biotechnology Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is part of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is approved and funded by the government of the United States. The NCBI is lo ...

(NCBI).

References

Mollicutes Bacteria orders {{Mollicutes-stub