mycoplasma

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)Any infectious bacterium of the genus Mycoplasma, often specifically Mycoplasma pneumoniae

   “Officials are investigating whether the illness was caused by mycoplasma, a common bacteria known as walking pneumonia.”

   “It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted.”