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Symbiosis

This article is about the biological phenomenon. For other uses, see Symbiosis (disambiguation).
In a cleaning symbiosis, the clownfish feeds on small invertebrates, that otherwise have potential to harm the sea anemone, and the fecal matter from the clownfish provides nutrients to the sea anemone. The clownfish is protected from predators by the anemone's stinging cells, to which the clownfish is immune. The relationship is therefore classified as mutualistic.[1]

Symbiosis (Ancient Greek συμβίωσις symbíōsis: living with, companionship < σύν sýn: together; and βίωσις bíōsis: living)[2] is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction, between two organisms of different species. The two organisms, termed symbionts, can be either in a mutualistic, a commensalistic, or a parasitic relationship.[3] In 1879, Heinrich Anton de Bary defined symbiosis as "the living together of unlike organisms".

The term is sometimes more exclusively used in a restricted, mutualistic sense, where both symbionts contribute to each other's subsistence.[3]

Symbiosis can be obligatory, which means that one, or both of the symbionts depend on each other for survival, or facultative (optional), when they can also subsist independently.

Symbiosis is also classified by physical attachment. Symbionts forming a single body live in conjunctive symbiosis, while all other arrangements are called disjunctive symbiosis.[4] When one organism lives on the surface of another, such as head lice on humans, it is called ectosymbiosis; when one partner lives inside the tissues of another, such as Symbiodinium within coral, it is termed endosymbiosis.[5][6]

  1. ^ Miller, Allie. "Intricate Relationship Allows the Other to Flourish: the Sea Anemone and the Clownfish". AskNature. The Biomimicry Institute. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
  2. ^ συμβίωσις, σύν, βίωσις. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project
  3. ^ a b "symbiosis". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  4. ^ "Symbiosis". Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary. Philadelphia: Elsevier Health Sciences, 2007. Credo Reference. Web. 17 September 2012
  5. ^ Moran 2006
  6. ^ Paracer & Ahmadjian 2000, p. 12

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