An Australian environmental survey reveals moderate Spiroplasma biodiversity: characterization of four new serogroups and a continental variant.

An environmental survey of tabanid host spiroplasma carriage was undertaken at 10 collection sites in Australia during February 1999. A total of 164 tabanid flies, representing 27 species, were collected and sustainable spiroplasma isolations were made from 48 of the flies. The morphology of the cultured spiroplasmas, as observed in M1D medium under dark-field microscopy, was typical of either (i) Apis group spiroplasmas (relatively thick cells (approximately 150 nm) with six or more turns) or (ii) chrysopicola-syrphidicola-TAAS-1 clade spiroplasmas (narrower, often much shorter cells) serologically related to Spiroplasma serogroup VIII.