Mutualism is the movement that promotes the existence of institutions in which their members provide mutual assistance.
The concept of mutualism has several uses. The most frequent appears in the field of economics and politics to name a doctrine and movement that promotes the activity of mutual societies .
A mutual, also known as a mutual society , is a non-profit institution that is governed under the precept of mutual assistance . The members of a mutual fund work in a coordinated and supportive manner to provide services to the members of the association.
Mutualism in political economy
Mutualism, therefore, seeks to promote the activity of mutual societies, which are usually financed through the contributions or fees of their members. This movement appears in various sectors of the economy, such as the provision of credit , insurance services and others.
As a theory of political economy , mutualism is the philosophy that promotes an organization of society that lacks a State and in which commercial exchange is carried out through barter, seeking equivalences between the work performed and the product that is obtained. receives. According to mutualism, producers can organize themselves into cooperative institutions that, in turn, are grouped into a large centralized federation.
Mutualism is the name of a type of biological interaction.
The concept in biology
Within the field of biology , mutualism is a type of interaction carried out by beings of different species, with benefits for all involved. Species that maintain a bond of this kind cooperate with each other. An example of biological mutualism occurs between bees and the flowers they pollinate.
Among living beings, mutualism relationships are also comparable to barter, since each species offers certain resources or services in exchange for others.
Types of biological mutualism
Let's look at the different types of biological mutualism that are known so far:
* resource-resource : this is a type of relationship in which one resource is exchanged for another, and it is the most common form of mutualism. It occurs, for example, between fungi and plant roots, when these provide them with carbohydrates in exchange for minerals (mainly phosphates and nitrates) and water . Leguminous plants (annual or perennial herbs, trees and shrubs characterized mainly by their legume-shaped fruit and their stipulated and compound leaves) and nitrogen-fixing rhizobia (bacteria that establish themselves in the root nodules of the former) exchange carbohydrates for nitrogen;
* service-resource : it is another type of mutualism that is very common in nature. An example well known to all is pollination, an exchange in which bees offer plants the service of dispersing gametes (pollen) and receive the nectar or pollen they need. In the same way, ants and aphids also have a service-resource relationship, since the former provide the latter with protection from the attacks of their predators and in exchange they expect honeydew or honey dew (a byproduct of the sap, extracted from plants by aphids);
* service-service : it is known to be the least common type of mutualism, although science has not been able to understand the reason for its scarcity. It occurs, for example, between clownfish and sea anemone, since the former protects the latter from the fish belonging to the Chaetodontidae family (whose food source is anemones) and these in return offer them protection against their predators. . But the relationship does not end there, as the clownfish waste serves as food for the symbiotic algae that live in the tentacles of the anemones, increasing the complexity of this case.
Some ants make their nests inside the hollowed spines of Acacia plants , protecting them from certain herbivores in exchange for the shelter they receive.