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Differences in the usage of the terms symbiosis and parasitism continue to plague the biological literature. The meaning of the term symbiosis is traced etymologically and it is urged that this word be used in the broad context in which it was defined originally—as an intimate (implying physiological) interaction of two dissimilar organisms or parts of organisms. Extensive quantitative analyses of the physiological bases of the interaction of the symbionts must be given priority over semantic debates.
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Lynda J. Goff (1982) studied this question.
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