Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. capri G1201 Genome Sequencing. Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. capri str. G1201

Mycoplasma genitalium is a small parasitic bacterium that lives on the ciliated epithelial cells of the primate genital and respiratory tracts. M. genitalium is the smallest known genome that can constitute a cell , and the second-smallest bacterium after the recently-discovered endosymbiont Carsonella ruddii. Until the discovery of Nanoarchaeum in 2002, M. genitalium was also considered to be the organism with the smallest genome.[1] There is a difference between smallest parasitic bacteria and smallest free living bacteria. The smallest known free living bacteria is the thermophile Aquifex aeolicus with 1.5 Mb and 1512 genes