Symbiote

The symbiote is usually the smaller of the two species involved in a symbiosis . The life partner with the larger body is also called the host . Occasionally, both partners involved in the symbiosis are called a symbiote, regardless of size.

As endosymbionts symbionts are called, which - intracellular or extracellular live inside their hosts -. Cyanobionts are cyanobacteria living in symbiosis .

For example, many are bacterial families as symbionts in vertebrates known, in particular the skin , the mucous membranes and in the intestinal lumen occur their host; an adult human has a total of around 100 billion endosymbiotic bacteria with a total weight of around 2 kg.

Endocytobionts are organisms (such as bacteria or viruses) that live in the cells of other organisms or multiply there (intracellularly symbiotic or parasitic).

See also

• Interspecific interrelationships
• Endosymbiosis
• Symbiogenesis
• Commensalism

Web links

Wiktionary: Symbiote  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

• Symbiotes. In: Lexicon of Biology. , on: Spektrum.de.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Symbiote. In: Spectrum compact lexicon of biology. Retrieved August 10, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Amar Nath Rai: CRC Handbook of Symbiotic Cyanobacteria . CRC Press, 2018, ISBN 978-1-351-08808-4 .
3. ↑ Patrick L. Scheid: Free-Living Amoebae and Their Multiple Impacts on Environmental Health , in: Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences, February 27, 2018, doi: 10.1016 / B978-0-12-409548-9.10969-8 , here: text following Fig. 8 (right column)