Symbiosis
type of close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms
Symbiosis (pl.: symbioses) is any close and long-term biological interaction between two organisms of different species. 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. This means that they benefit each other in some way.
Symbiosis is diverse and can be classified in multiple ways. It can be obligate, meaning that one or both of the organisms depend on each other for survival, or facultative, meaning that they can subsist independently. 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. Where the interaction reduces both parties' fitness, it is called competition; where just one party's fitness is reduced, it is called amensalism. Where one benefits but the other is largely unaffected, this is termed commensalism. Where one benefits at the other's expense, it is called parasitism.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Symbiosis” as type of close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as type of close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q121610. The Library of Congress control number is sh85131402. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1879.
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This entry incorporates text from “Symbiosis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.