attachment organelle membrane

GO:0033111 · Appendage · Membrane · Proposed

The membrane surrounding the attachment organelle. [GO:0033111]

Part of: attachment organelle (GO:0033099); plasma membrane (GO:0005886)

Xrefs: uniprot.location:SL-0021 — Attachment organelle membrane

Components

Component	Type	Part of / acts on	Grounding	Genes	Stoichiometry	Essential	Role
attachment organelle lipid bilayer	Lipid	part of	Reviewed label only (reviewed name; no accession asserted)			ESSENTIAL	Specialized plasma-membrane region that surrounds the Mycoplasma attachment organelle. `GO:0033111` GO:0033111 defines the attachment organelle membrane as the membrane surrounding the attachment organelle. `uniprot.location:SL-0021` — Attachment organelle membrane UniProt Subcellular Location SL-0021 maps directly to GO:0033111 and places it under both attachment organelle and cell membrane. `GO:0005886` GO:0005886 identifies the plasma membrane that includes this specialized attachment-organelle membrane patch.

NCBITaxon:544448 Mycoplasmatota — VARIABLE: Attachment organelles and their surrounding membrane patches are characterized in the Mycoplasma pneumoniae cluster within Mycoplasmatota, not universally across the phylum. Chen et al. use historical Mollicutes terminology; current NCBI taxonomy places the M129 example in Mycoplasmoidales outside class Mollicutes (NCBITaxon:31969). [DOI:10.1186/s12866-025-04320-w]
NCBITaxon:2 Bacteria — RARE: The characterized attachment organelle membrane is restricted to the small bacterial lineage that carries attachment organelles. [DOI:10.1186/s12866-025-04320-w]

NCBITaxon:272634 Mycoplasmoides pneumoniae M129 — Type strain used by the Nakane et al. structural analysis of the attachment organelle surface and internal core. [DOI:10.1371/journal.ppat.1005299]

The attachment organelle membrane is the specialized plasma membrane patch that surrounds the polar Mycoplasma attachment organelle.

Subject	Predicate	Object	Evidence
attachment organelle membrane	surrounds	attachment organelle	`GO:0033111` GO:0033111 defines the attachment organelle membrane as the membrane surrounding the attachment organelle. `GO:0033099` GO:0033099 identifies the containing attachment organelle structure. `uniprot.location:SL-0021` — Attachment organelle membrane UniProt SL-0021 places the membrane under the attachment organelle subcellular location.
attachment organelle membrane	is part of	plasma membrane	`GO:0033111` GO:0033111 identifies the attachment organelle membrane that forms this specialized cell-membrane region. `uniprot.location:SL-0021` — Attachment organelle membrane UniProt SL-0021 places the attachment organelle membrane under the cell membrane subcellular location. `GO:0005886` GO:0005886 is the plasma membrane term corresponding to the UniProt Cell membrane location.

INTERPRETATION (RESOLVED): Keep P1/P40/P90, P30, and internal-core proteins on the whole attachment organelle record rather than duplicating them as attachment organelle membrane components. GO:0033111 and SL-0021 denote the membrane around the organelle. Nakane et al. map P1/P40/P90 and P30 to the broader organelle surface and map HMW2, P65, and HMW3 to the electron-dense internal core, so those proteins remain components of the whole attachment organelle record.

GO:0033111 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the attachment organelle membrane.
GO:0016020 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for membrane.
GO:0033099 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the attachment organelle that this membrane surrounds.
GO:0005886 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the plasma membrane that includes this specialized membrane patch.
uniprot.location:SL-0021 — Attachment organelle membrane UniProt Subcellular Location entry SL-0021 maps directly to GO:0033111 and places the attachment organelle membrane under the attachment organelle and cell membrane locations.
DOI:10.1371/journal.ppat.1005299 Nakane et al. 2015 structurally mapped the Mycoplasma pneumoniae attachment organelle surface and internal core.
DOI:10.1186/s12866-025-04320-w Chen et al. 2025 review distinct cytoskeletal motility structures among Mycoplasma pneumoniae relatives.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?id=272634 NCBI full lineage checked 2026-10-10 places Mycoplasmoides pneumoniae M129 under Mycoplasmoidales and Mycoplasmatota (NCBITaxon:544448), not under the current Mollicutes class. This authority supplies identifier scope, not experimental structure-presence evidence.
https://rest.uniprot.org/taxonomy/544448.json UniProt taxonomy checked 2026-10-10 confirms active taxon 544448 as phylum Mycoplasmatota; the M129 lineage includes this phylum.

2026-09-12T23:45:54Z codex · CREATED_RECORD — Scaffolded by scripts/new_record.py
2026-09-12T23:46:21Z codex · EXPANDED_RECORD — Added the UniProt SL xref, membrane parentage, attachment organelle and plasma membrane parthood, a reviewed-label-only lipid-bilayer component, Mycoplasma lineage distribution, a Mycoplasmoides example, a nonmechanistic topology graph, and a resolved interpretation that keeps surface and core proteins on the whole attachment organelle.
2026-09-12T23:55:25Z codex · ADDRESS_REVIEW — Resolved #722 by adding GO:0005886 evidence to the lipid-bilayer component and GO:0033111 evidence to the plasma-membrane parthood edge.
2026-10-10T19:30:14Z claude · ADDRESS_REVIEW — Addressed #2124: grounded the bounded distribution to current Mycoplasmatota rather than historical Mollicutes usage; retained VARIABLE, M129 example and PROPOSED status.