Mycoplasma are very small microorganisms that can contaminate your cell cultures. This contamination can seriously impact the reliability, reproducibility, and consistency of your experimental results. As such, it presents a major challenge for research applications, as well as in the manufacturing of bioproducts.
Mycoplasma contamination is difficult to detect, so its presence can go undiscovered for months and even years. In fact, it is estimated that over 10% of all cell cultures are contaminated with Mycoplasma species1. This shows the importance of routine testing to make sure you are working with uncontaminated cultures.