Serum-free medium LD59 was used for primary isolation of Spiroplasma kunkelii (corn stunt spiroplasma) from diseased corn plants from Mississippi. Several strains were cloned in triplicate from one primary pure culture. Some of the strains were helical in cell shape, some were nonhelical, and some were partially helical, consisting of helical and nonhelical regions in the same cell. All helical strains except one (strain I-15) exhibited flexional and rotational motility in broth culture. Partially helical strains exhibited rotational movement in helical regions only. Nonhelical cells exhibited only flexional motility. These three morphological types produced three colony types on medium LD59 solidified with 0.8% agar. Nonhelical strains produced minute "fried egg" colonies (≤ 0.2 mm in diameter after 20 days incubation), while partially helical strains produced small colonies with granular centers surrounded by satellite colonies. Strains with normal helicity in general produced large, uniformly diffuse colonies (up to 2 mm), but one helical strain (I-15) appeared to be nonmotile in broth culture and to exhibit little translational motility in agar medium, accounting for development of minute granular colonies (about 0.2 mm in diameter). All new strains were serologically closely related to known strains of S. kunkelii, but polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis of membrane proteins revealed minor differences. This is the first report of nonhelical strains of S. kunkelii and of helical strains with apparent impairment in translational motility.Key words: Spiroplasma kunkelii, nonhelical spiroplasmas, Mollicutes.