These strains of bacteria are commonly found as commensals in the urogenital tracts of human beings, but overgrowth can lead to infections that cause the patient discomfort.

The six recognised Ureaplasma species have a GC content of 27 to 30 percent and a genome size ranging from 0.76 to 1.17 million base pairs, and cholesterol is required for growth.

In the same study conducted, using the same 16s rDNA aligned sequences, they concluded all the mammalian strains diverged and coevolved with their corresponding species (canine, feline, human, bovine) during the Cretaceous period.

Classified within the Mollicutes class, Ureaplasma species have undergone significant evolutionary adaptations from their Gram-positive bacterial ancestors, a phenomenon termed degenerative evolutions (Kallapur, Suhas G, et al 2013[2]).

The reason that many individuals get this infection can be damage to the uterus wall lining, causing the bacteria to thrive in a carbon-rich environment.

Unfortunately, it was found from trials that many of the antibiotics that we utilize on a day-to-day basis for urinary tract infections do not affect the bacteria due to lacking a cell wall.

Yet, the types of antibiotics that can be used are quinolones, tetracyclines, and macrolides, since they affect a large part of the mycoplasma family of bacteria where U. urealyticum falls under.

This is a therapeutic that can be taken orally, once ingested our macrophages, which are part of our immune system, take up the antibiotic and deliver it to the sites of infection (Fan et al. 2023[7]).

[9] In addition, this pathogen may latently infect the chorionic villi tissues of pregnant women, thereby impacting pregnancy outcome.

[5] Issues that arise from Ureaplasma urealyticum infections during pregnancy include preterm birth and impacted embryonic development.