Friday, November 25, 2011

What are some other symbiotic relationships besides mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism?

Please verify your answer with several links.What are some other symbiotic relationships besides mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism?
There's ectosymbiosis, in which one organism lives on the surface (inner or outer) of another organism. Usually it's classified either as mutualistic or commensualistic. (1) (2)


Also there's endosymbiosis, in which one organism lives internally in another. (3) This could be the reason why some organisms evolved. (Lynn Margulis (4))





Also, there is the example of malaria (parasite) which forced the development of the sickle cell gene. As I'm sure you know, the population that was heterozygous for the gene could survive malaria, but was weakened by the single copy of the gene. (5) (6) Those with no sickle gene or who were homozygous died. I don't know if it has a different name than just parasitism.What are some other symbiotic relationships besides mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism?
I think that just about covers it. If you're a symbiont you can either help the host, harm them, or be indifferent. There isn't much else in between.

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