Hi, I'm looking for a specific example of a mutualistic relationship in nature, except I need it to be concerning lower levels of life, like cells, or some basic, simple form of life like that.

KUXJ

Hi! Tre, welcome to AMHD

Here's one on mutualism:
Nitrogen Fixation

Some others on symbiosis:
http://jcs.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/77/1/225.pdf
Trees for Life - Ecological features of the Caledonian Forest - Symbiosis

k

katieokell

My absolute favourite example of mutualism is mycorrhizae.
Mycorrhizae is a fungus that lives either on but outside of, or piercing through the roots in plants. This fungus has the ability to process nigrogenous compounds into forms that the plant can use - it gives the plant food. In return, the plant gives the fungus somewhere to live.
Some studies indicate that if a single, connected colony of mycorrhizea connects the root system of two plants, then if one plant is nutrient deficient, the mycorrhizea can transfer nutrients from one plant to the other.
Cool, eh?

asking

Mycorrhizae are very cool and some people think that they co-evolved with plants starting when plants first colonized terrestrial habitats.

Another good one is human (or other animal) gut flora. We typically carry hundreds of strains of bacteria and fungi.

Germ free mice need 30% more calories than regular mice.

The gut is outside of the body functionally as well as topologically.

katieokell

re: asking and gut flora
Another cool thing about gut flora is the new research on metabolism/weight loss. It appears that people that are in a healthy weight range have different flora than those who are obese. Whether this is a cause or an effect is not completely known, but it is kind of cool.

asking

I heard that!

I am very interested in body flora. Someone recently did a survey of flora on the skin and found that the greatest diversity of bacteria was on -- surprise-- the forearms.

They sub categorized the microhabitats into dry, damp, or oily. It was very ecological. Different bacteria grow between the toes than on the heels (dry).

katieokell

It's kind of creepy to think that there's bacteria living on all the surfaces of your body, both inside and out....

asking

Get used to it! They are your friends.

And then those are all those tiny mites that live in your hair follicles, living off skin cells and oils.

Seriously, the idea of what an individual IS has to be given a second look. We are actually small communities.