Vincent Wigglesworth

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Sir Vincent Brian Wigglesworth (17 April 1899 - 11 February 1994) was a British entomologist who made significant contributions to the field of insect physiology. In particular, Wigglesworth was interested in the study of metamorphosis. His most significant contribution was the discovery that neurosecretory cells in the brain of the South American kissing bug, Rhodnius prolixus, secrete a crucial growth hormone which regulates the process of metamorphosis. This was the first experimental confirmation of the function of neurosecretory cells. He went on to discover another hormone, called the juvenile hormone, which prevented the development of adult characteristics in R. prolixus until the insect had reached the appropriate larval stage. Wigglesworth was able to distort the developmental phases of the insect by controlling levels of this hormone. From these observations, Wigglesworth was able to develop a coherent theory of how an insect's genome can selectively activate hormones which determine its development and morphology.

Wigglesworth also described the bacterium Wigglesworthia glossinidia brevipalpis, an endosymbiont related to E. coli which lives in the gut of the tsetse fly. It was later discovered that this bacterium had one of the smallest known genomes, a fact which made it important in the research of the minimal genome which is required to support life.

Wigglesworth also served in the military in France in World War I. He received his degree from the University of Cambridge. He lectured at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the University of London, and finally at the University of Cambridge. He became the Quick Professor of Biology at the University of Cambridge in 1952 and was knighted in 1964.