A novel haemoplasma species identified in archived primate blood smears

In order to confirm a microscopic diagnosis of ‘eperythrozoonosis’ made over 40 years ago in a captive owl monkey (Aotus trivirgatus), DNA was extracted from archived fixed and stained blood smears and subjected to generic haemotropic mycoplasma (haemoplasma) quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) and a human glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase qPCR as an amplification control. The qPCRs confirmed the extraction of host DNA from the samples and the presence of a haemoplasma species. Partial 16S rRNA and ribonuclease P ribosomal gene fragments were amplified by PCR, cloned and sequenced. Sequence data and phylogeny showed the owl monkey haemoplasma to lie in the haemominutum clade of haemoplasmas, most closely related to ‘Candidatus Mycoplasma kahaneii’. This study confirms the use of generic haemoplasma qPCRs to successfully amplify haemoplasma DNA from fixed, stained and archived blood smears from the early 1970s and provides molecular confirmation of the existence of a novel haemoplasma species in an owl monkey, for which the name ‘Candidatus Mycoplasma aoti’ sp. nov. is proposed.