| Wigglesworthia glossinidia | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Bacteria |
| Phylum: | Proteobacteria |
| Class: | Gamma Proteobacteria |
| Order: | Enterobacteriales |
| Family: | Enterobacteriaceae |
| Genus: | Wigglesworthia Aksoy, 1995 |
| Species: | W. glossinidia |
| Binomial name | |
| Wigglesworthia glossinidia Aksoy, 1995 |
|
Wigglesworthia glossinidia is a Gram-negative bacterium in the family Enterobacteriaceae, related to E. coli, which lives in the gut of the tsetse fly. The bacterium was described by Serap Aksoy [1] and bears the name of the British entomologist Sir Vincent Brian Wigglesworth, who died the year prior to its description. Wigglesworthia has symbiotically coevolved with the tsetse fly for millions of years, and is a textbook example of a bacterial endosymbiont. Because of this relationship, Wigglesworthia has lost a large part of its genome and has one of the smallest known genomes of any living organism. Together with Buchnera aphidicola, Wigglesworthia has been the subject of genetic research into the minimal genome necessary for any living organism. Wigglesworthia also synthesises key vitamins which the tsetse fly does not get from its diet of blood. Without the vitamins Wigglesworthia produces, the tsetse fly cannot reproduce. Since the tsetse fly spreads African sleeping sickness, Wigglesworthia may one day be used to control the spread of this disease.