Endosymbiosis
association in which an organism lives inside another organism / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Endosymbiosis occurs when a symbiont lives inside the body or the cells of another organism. It is a very widespread phenomenon in living things.[1]
Examples are:
- Rhizobia: nitrogen-fixing bacteria which live in root nodules on plants of the pea family.
- Singly-celled forams which include a single-celled alga inside the cell. This is 'facultative', which means they may or may not do it. A more far-reaching version is idioplastic endosymbiosis. Here, the foram consumes the alga, but keeps its chloroplasts in working order.
- Green algae inside marine polychaete worms.
- Single-celled algae inside reef-building corals.
- Gut flora (often flagellates) inside the digestive systems of insects and vertebrates which digest plant cellulose. These are 'obligate' symbionts, which means the host must have them.[1]
- Lichen: fungus+alga or bacterium.
- Mycorrhiza: fungal hyphae and roots of trees.