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Letter

Nature Genetics 32, 402–407 (1 November 2002) | doi:10.1038/ng986

Genome sequence of the endocellular obligate symbiont of tsetse flies, Wigglesworthia glossinidia

Leyla Akman , Atsushi Yamashita , Hidemi Watanabe , Kenshiro Oshima , Tadayoshi Shiba , Masahira Hattori & Serap Aksoy

Many insects that rely on a single food source throughout their developmental cycle harbor beneficial microbes that provide nutrients absent from their restricted diet. Tsetse flies, the vectors of African trypanosomes, feed exclusively on blood and rely on one such intracellular microbe for nutritional provisioning and fecundity.