endosymbiont

(noun)

An organism that lives within the body or cells of another organism.

Related Terms

Examples of endosymbiont in the following topics:

  • Genome Reduction

    • These organelles are descended from endosymbionts, which can only survive within the host cell and which the host cell likewise needs for survival.
    • A common explanation for these keen manipulative abilities is the compact and efficient genomic structure consistently found in obligate endosymbionts.
    • One obligate endosymbiont of psyllid, Candidatus Carsonella ruddii, has the smallest genome currently known among cellular organisms at 160kb.
    • The reductive evolution model has been proposed as an effort to define the genomic commonalities seen in all obligate endosymbionts.
    • Based on this model, it is clear that endosymbionts face different adaptive challenges than free-living species.

  • Endophytes and Plants

    • An endophyte is an endosymbiont, often a bacterium or fungus, that lives within a plant for at least part of its life without causing apparent disease.
    • An endophyte is an endosymbiont, often a bacterium or fungus, that lives within a plant for at least part of its life without causing apparent disease .

  • Sea Coral and Sea Anemone Zooxanthellae

    • The term was loosely used to refer to any golden-brown endosymbionts, including diatoms and other dinoflagellates.
    • Symbiodinium are known primarily for their role as mutualistic endosymbionts.

  • Verrucomicrobia

    • A number of as-yet uncultivated species have been identified in association with eukaryotic hosts including extrusive explosive ectosymbionts of protists and endosymbionts of nematodes residing in their gametes.

  • Epsilonproteobacteria

    • A member of the class Epsilonproteobacteria occurs as an endosymbiont in the large gills of the deep water sea snail Alviniconcha hessleri.

  • Gammaproteobacteria

    • Phylogenetically, in the Enterobacteriales, several peptidoglycan-less insect endosymbionts form a sister clade to the Enterobacteriaceae, but since they are not validly described, this group is not officially a taxon; examples of these species are Sodalis, Buchnera, Wigglesworthia, Baumannia and Blochmannia.

  • Mutualism vs. Symbiosis

    • Barnacles that live on whales and bromeliads that live on tropical trees are examples of endosymbionts.