Wigglesworthia glossinidia brevipalpis
Encyclopedia
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 and bears the name of the British entomologist Sir Vincent Brian Wigglesworth who died the year prior to its description. Wigglesworthia has symbiotically co-evolved 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.
Gram-negative
Gram-negative bacteria are bacteria that do not retain crystal violet dye in the Gram staining protocol. In a Gram stain test, a counterstain is added after the crystal violet, coloring all Gram-negative bacteria with a red or pink color...
bacterium in the family Enterobacteriaceae
Enterobacteriaceae
The Enterobacteriaceae is a large family of bacteria that includes many of the more familiar pathogens, such as Salmonella, Escherichia coli, Yersinia pestis, Klebsiella and Shigella. This family is the only representative in the order Enterobacteriales of the class Gammaproteobacteria in the...
, related to E. coli, which lives in the gut of the tsetse fly
Tsetse fly
Tsetse , sometimes spelled tzetze and also known as tik-tik flies, are large biting flies that inhabit much of mid-continental Africa between the Sahara and the Kalahari deserts. They live by feeding on the blood of vertebrate animals and are the primary biological vectors of trypanosomes, which...
. The bacterium was described by Serap Aksoy and bears the name of the British entomologist Sir Vincent Brian Wigglesworth who died the year prior to its description. Wigglesworthia has symbiotically co-evolved with the tsetse fly for millions of years, and is a textbook example of a bacterial endosymbiont
Endosymbiont
An endosymbiont is any organism that lives within the body or cells of another organism, i.e. forming an endosymbiosis...
. Because of this relationship, Wigglesworthia has lost a large part of its genome
Genome
In modern molecular biology and genetics, the genome is the entirety of an organism's hereditary information. It is encoded either in DNA or, for many types of virus, in RNA. The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA/RNA....
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.