Suvarna Garge (Editor)

Wigglesworthia glossinidia

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Domain
  
Bacteria

Order
  
Enterobacteriales

Genus
  
Wigglesworthia

Rank
  
Species

Class
  
Gammaproteobacteria

Family
  
Enterobacteriaceae

Phylum
  
Proteobacteria

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Scientific name
  
Wigglesworthia glossinidia

Similar
  
Sodalis, Blochmannia, Buchnera aphidicola, Candidatus Carsonella ruddii, Glossinidae

Wigglesworthia glossinidia is a species of gram-negative bacteria which was isolated from the gut of the tsetse fly. W. glossinidia is a bacterial endosymbiont of the tsetse fly. 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, consisting of a single chromosome of 700,000 bp and a plasmid of 5,200. Together with Buchnera aphidicola, Wigglesworthia has been the subject of genetic research into the minimal genome necessary for any living organism. Wigglesworthia also synthesizes key B-complex vitamins which the tsetse fly does not get from its diet of blood. Without the vitamins Wigglesworthia produces, the tsetse fly has greatly reduced growth and reproduction. Since the tsetse fly is the primary vector of Trypanosoma brucei, the pathogen that causes African trypanosomiasis, it has been suggested that W. glossinidia may one day be used to help control the spread of this disease.

History

W. glossinidia was first described in 1995 and was named for the British entomologist Sir Vincent Brian Wigglesworth.

References

Wigglesworthia glossinidia Wikipedia