mycobiont Bot.
(maɪkəʊˈbaɪɒnt)
[f. myco- + Gr. βιουντ-, pr. pple. stem of βιοῦν to live, f. βίος life.]
The fungal component of a lichen; any fungus which is associated with an alga to form a lichen.
| 1957 G. D. Scott in Nature 2 Mar. 486/2 Three new terms are here proposed... They are:..(2) ‘mycobiont’, applicable to a fungus in association with an alga in the formation of a lichen. 1961 Science 10 Mar. 700/2 In our investigation, 11 pure cultures of mycobionts were tested for active compounds. 1969 Ecology L. 744/2 In the laboratory the lichen organization breaks down and either the phycobiont..or the mycobiont..overgrows the other partner. 1973 Phytochemistry XII. 2249 (heading) Sterols of the mycobiont and phycobiont isolated from the lichen Xanthoria parietina. |