Joo Kim

Are endosymbiotic relationships purely beneficial?

Started Feb. 12, 2024

Abstract or project description

This documentary sets out to uncover an area of biology that is important, yet comparatively understudied and unknown to the vast majority of mainstream media. Endosymbiosis is a mutually beneficial interspecific relationship in which one of the partners in the relationship lives inside the other. These symbiotic relationships can occur between an embryo and a foreign microorganism, for example between a salamander and an algae or a lice and a specific strain of bacterium. We are interested in conveying and translate the data surrounding this rather understudied and low publicity topic to the masses. With this documentary, we seek to properly understand the current research regarding the dynamic relationship between the Yellow Spotted Salamender and the algae "Oophilia Amblystomatis".