Subject: def. of Endophyte

From: "Bentivenga, Stephen P" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 1995 15:32:51 -0500 (EST)

Just offering my two cents on this definition issue ............

(getting on soapbox)

I usually take works and terms very literally.  Thus "endophyte" translates
from the greek as "within plants".  In this broad sense, any organism
living inside a plant is an endophyte but algae living mollusks are not.
The word itself carries no implication of benefit (e.g., mutualism, parasitism)
or location within the plant (e.g., inter or intracellularly; root, shoot, etc)

By the same token, I tend to define the work "Symbiosis" sensu deBary.
In this fashion, the word means "Life Together" with no implication of
mutualism.  In fact, deBary first used the work to describe the pathogenic
relationship of Phytophthora infestans on Potato.

well .... for what it's worth

(getting off soap box)

I haven't read the article either (I'm on my way to the library now) so
I can feign ignorance if this is positively naive.

btw - I recently found a _GEM_ in the library.  Run - don't walk - to your
library to see if you can find:

   Wallin, I.E.  1927.  Symbionticism and the Origin of Species.
        Williams & Wilkins Co., Baltimore.

This marvelous book deals mostly with the rather unpopular theory of the
time that mitochondria are derived from endosymbiotic bacteria.  To my
knowlege, this is the first treatis of the now-accepted endosymbiotic
origin theory.  In fact, I first saw a citation of this book in one of
Lynn Margulis' books but I could never actually find this text.
Wallin also challanges many of Darwin's views on natural selection, and also
accepted views on heredity.

This book was very forward in many issues but I think that Wallin was
laughed at as being a crackpot.  Funny how history unveils itself.

Please don't order this book on interlibrary loan because then my library
will want to recall my copy and YOU CAN'T HAVE IT! (that's the insolent
little brat in me making it's presence painfully known).

Steve Bentivenga
West Virginia University