Obligate endosymbiont of the tsetse fly vector for African trypanosomes.. Wigglesworthia glossinidia endosymbiont of Glossina brevipalpis

Wigglesworthia glossinidia endosymbiont of Glossina brevipalpis. This organism is the obligate endosymbiont for the tsetse fly Glossina brevipalpis. As Wigglesworthia brevipalpis resides intracellularly, the resulting co-evolution with its host over millions of years has led to a drastic reduction in the bacterium's genome size, resulting in this its inability to survive outside the host. Its genome is one of the smallest genomes identified so far, which makes it an ideal candidate to study the evolutionary impact of obligate intracellular existence.