International Glossina Genome Initiative (IGGI) was established in 2004 to promote Glossina genome sequencing and bioinformatics activities. Expanding genomics resources is expected to also build the Glossina community.
Tsetse has a unique reproductive physiology and developmental cycle. They undergo viviparous reproduction (the deposition of live offspring). In tsetse this process is highly specialized.
In the absence of effective and affordable control strategies to block disease in the mammalian host, most control efforts utilize tsetse reduction methods. In the absence of effective and affordable control strategies to block disease in the mammalian host, most control efforts utilize tsetse reduction methods.
Much research has gone into the molecular aspects of trypanosome biology in the mammalian host. Significantly less is known about the parasite developmental processes in the tsetse fly.
Wigglesworthia. Mutualistic bacteria enable tsetse to survive on a single diet-vertebrate blood. Wigglesworthia is an intracellular enteric bacterium with a reduced genome size of 700kb and reside in the bacteriome organ in anterior midgut.
Tsetse flies (Diptera: Glossinidae) are the sole vectors of pathogenic trypanosomes that cause Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) in sub-Saharan Africa.