syntrophyn.

1897 Jrnl. Royal Microsc. Soc. 283 Wasmann also speaks of the ‘syntrophy’ of Lælaps oophilus Moniez, [a mite] which occurs freely on the surface of the eggs of ants.., but without doing them any damage, apparently depending on the salivary secretion of the ants, which are always licking their eggs.

1971 M. Alexander Microbial Ecol. x. 243 The extensive distribution of bacteria both exporting and importing growth factors suggests a widespread occurrence of syntrophy in nature.

1950 Experientia VI. 42/2 Other possible explanations of the requirement of intermediate cultivation in the penicillin method include segregation of mutant and non~mutant nuclei from a multinucleate cell, and a syntrophic effect of the non-viable irradiated bacteria, which would promote sterilization of mutants by penicillin.

1946 Jrnl. Bacteriol. 52 503/2 Syntrophism. This is defined as the growth of two distinct biochemical mutants in mixed culture as a result of the ability of each strain to synthesize the growth factor required by the other... Mutants blocked at different steps in the synthesis of the same factor show syntrophism.

1971 M. Alexander Microbial Ecol. x. 242 Mutual feeding by dissimilar auxotrophs is termed syntrophism, a relationship in which two or possibly more populations are able to develop in nutrient-deficient circumstances not suitable for the proliferation, or allowing for the poor development at best, of either.