In Need of Symbiosis
We’ll never truly be independent.
At 20, I’ve recently thought about what I need to do to “be a man”. Most see going to college as the beginning of adulthood, but it’s really more like young adult daycare. Now I’m expecting manhood to hit once I live away from home and away from college. Maybe throw in a beard and that’ll do the trick. But despite the increase in facial hair, will I be independent? I’ll probably have a roommate or a wife and I’ll hopefully have some kind of boss. I’d like to think my family will still be a big part of my life. So, not really independent at all. But it’s odd that we even have this idea of independence. We want to feel strong, secure and able to take care of ourselves. Biologically, we’re never independent. We need other humans at every stage. We need other creatures to be able to function as much as we need our mothers. And it’s crazy how many of them are inside us.
Symbiosis describes this need for the non-self. It is, per definition, any close interaction between members of different species. Generally people associate it with positive interactions but it encompasses everything from parasitism (one organism, the host, is harmed) to mutualism (both species benefit). Some of the most interesting cases are positive symbiotic relationships in which the organisms become codependent. You probably know how plants need insects to carry pollen between flowers and allow fruit to grow. This is symbiosis. You might know how the Angler Fish uses bacteria that light up to lure prey in. This is symbiosis. You probably don’t know about how corals house algal protists that perform photosynthesis. This is symbiosis. And I want to tell you all about it.
In this blog, I want to share the current research in symbiosis that I find most interesting or engaging. The new developments that change the way we look at the world, the way we look at ourselves. But beyond knowledge I want to share emotion. I want to use these words to make you feel the way I feel. I think the simplest reason I crave knowledge is the feeling it gives me. That wonder that I experience. The way I gaze in rapture at a new discovery. This feeling is the reason why I picked up a biology text in high school. It’s the underlying feeling that there is something grand and amazing about how a tiny mitochondria organelle powers a cell, the smallest unit of your body. In fact, this grand and amazing detail goes right back to symbiosis – mitochondria were once free-living bacteria that began to live symbiotically inside other cells. It’s kinda like we were once separate organisms that began to shack up because rent was cheaper that way – we began living together. The Greek root of “symbiosis” is exactly that – living together.
On the 7th floor, in Medical Research Building number 3, near the 21st Avenue of Nashville, TN are a series of rooms and offices in which the Bordenstein Lab lives. This is where my journey with symbiosis began. 18 months ago, I went through the doors of the building, up one of four elevators, and down the hall to Dr. Seth Bordenstein’s door. I had found his lab online through the biological sciences department and wanted to get involved in the research. Because that’s what bio majors do. Because it seemed like a great lab if you aren’t premed. Because of symbiosis. I had emailed him and he asked me to come in and discuss the possibilities of working in the lab. I knew this might be difficult and prepared for being grilled and for defending why I should work in his lab.
Yet what stood out most when I left the interview with a secured position in the lab was not my lack of any qualification – except curiosity, which I had a surplus of. It was not the difficulty and tedium of the task at hand – I would find that out in the fall when work actually began. Actually, it was the excitement of being involved in something so new. Seth talked about symbiosis as a revolutionary field in biology. It’s an idea that is now being incorporated in every other area from microbiology to evolution to medicine. It’s not just a body of knowledge but a framework for looking at the rest of the world and understanding it better.
The classroom and the lab have been the origin of my passion for science, but the class text isn’t where I’ll be spending all my time for this project. Don’t get me wrong – the textbook egret that eats textbook ticks off of a textbook cow is wonderful. Many of these textbook interactions are interesting and deserve to be discussed. But I’m not interested in only sharing what can already be found in a textbook. In fact, after reading this alone you know the textbook definition and a few examples of symbiosis. But it goes so much deeper than that. Now we can talk about the microbiotic environment inside the textbook cow’s gut instead.
Back to me being 20. I think there’s something we should be looking for that is worth more than independence as we grow up. It is maturity. Not the stiff-necked, no-fun kind that you might imagine, but one based on ever-increasing understanding. Understanding of self, understanding of others. Similarly, our identity as a species needs to be developed through understanding. Understanding us. And understanding the need we have for each other. And the symbiotic need for other species. Inside and out.
In Need of Symbiosis 