''Wigglesworthia glossinidia'' is a species of

gram-negative bacteria Gram-negative bacteria are bacteria that do not retain the crystal violet stain used in the Gram staining method of bacterial differentiation. They are characterized by their cell envelopes, which are composed of a thin peptidoglycan cell wall ...

which was isolated from the gut of the

tsetse fly Tsetse ( , or ) (sometimes spelled tzetze; also known as tik-tik flies), are large, biting flies that inhabit much of tropical Africa. Tsetse flies include all the species in the genus ''Glossina'', which are placed in their own family, Glos ...

. ''W. glossinidia'' is a bacterial

endosymbiont An ''endosymbiont'' or ''endobiont'' is any organism that lives within the body or cells of another organism most often, though not always, in a mutualistic relationship. (The term endosymbiosis is from the Greek: ἔνδον ''endon'' "within ...

of the tsetse fly. Because of this relationship, ''Wigglesworthia'' has lost a large part of its

genome In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding g ...

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 ''Buchnera aphidicola'', a member of the Pseudomonadota and the only species in the genus ''Buchnera'', is the primary endosymbiont of aphids, and has been studied in the pea aphid, ''Acyrthosiphon pisum''. ''Buchnera'' is believed to have had ...

'', ''Wigglesworthia'' has been the subject of genetic research into the

minimal genome Minimal may refer to: * Minimal (music genre), art music that employs limited or minimal musical materials * "Minimal" (song), 2006 song by Pet Shop Boys * Minimal (supermarket) or miniMAL, a former supermarket chain in Germany and Poland * Minim ...

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.Nogge, G. 1976. Sterility in tsetse flies (Glossina morsitans Westwood) caused by loss of symbionts. Experientia 32, 995−996. Since the tsetse fly is the primary vector of ''

Trypanosoma brucei ''Trypanosoma brucei'' is a species of parasitic kinetoplastid belonging to the genus '' Trypanosoma'' that is present in sub-Saharan Africa. Unlike other protozoan parasites that normally infect blood and tissue cells, it is exclusively extrace ...

'', 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

External links

Genome News Network article on ''Wigglesworthia''

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3568005 Bacteria described in 1995