Holobiont

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A holobiont is an assemblage of a host and the many other species living in or around it, which together form a discrete ecological unit through symbiosis,^[2] though there is controversy over this discreteness. The components of a holobiont are individual species or bionts, while the combined genome of all bionts is the hologenome. The holobiont concept was initially introduced by the German theoretical biologist Adolf Meyer-Abich in 1943,^[3] and then apparently independently by Dr. Lynn Margulis in her 1991 book Symbiosis as a Source of Evolutionary Innovation.^[2] The concept has evolved since the original formulations.^[4] Holobionts include the host, virome, microbiome, and any other organisms which contribute in some way to the functioning of the whole.^[5][6] Well-studied holobionts include reef-building corals and humans.^[7][8]