| Wigglesworthia glossinidia | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Bacteria |
| Kingdom: | Pseudomonadati |
| Phylum: | Pseudomonadota |
| Class: | Gammaproteobacteria |
| Order: | Enterobacterales |
| Family: | Erwiniaceae |
| Genus: | Wigglesworthia |
| Species: | W. glossinidia |
| Binomial name | |
| Wigglesworthia glossinidia Aksoy, 1995 | |
Wigglesworthia glossinidia is a species of gram-negative bacteria that is a bacterial endosymbiont of the tsetse fly. [1] Because of this relationship, Wigglesworthia has lost a large part of its genome, leaving it with one of the smallest genomes of any living organism, consisting of a single chromosome of 700,000 bp and a plasmid of 5,200. [2] Together with Buchnera aphidicola , Wigglesworthia has been the subject of genetic research into the minimal genome necessary for any living organism. [3]
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Phylogenetic studies suggest that the symbiotic relationship between W. glossinidia began 59-80 million years ago. [4] Wigglesworthia synthesizes key B-complex vitamins that the fly does not get from its diet of blood. [2] Without the vitamins Wigglesworthia produces, the tsetse fly has greatly reduced growth and reproduction. [5] 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. [2]