title: Genomic and cellular complexity from symbiotic simplicity.
abstract: The more that biologists study symbiotic microorganisms and their vast influence on animals, the more nature's networkism unfolds in a continuum at different biological scales. In this issue, Van Leuven et al. illuminate how a stable and longstanding animal-microbe mutualism increased its intergenomic network without gaining any new genomes.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Biological Sciences and Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, USA. Electronic address: s.bordenstein@vanderbilt.edu.
authors.forename: Seth R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Bordenstein
mesh_terms: D020561:Alphaproteobacteria / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D000818:Animals; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D006430:Hemiptera / Q000382:microbiology*