Hypothetical types of biochemistry in the late 1960s, these machines are often classed as computers (or computer-guided robots) and filed under "silicon-based life", even though the silicon backing matrix of these processors is not nearly as fundamental to their operation as carbon is for "wet life". Arsenic, which is chemically similar to phosphorus, while poisonous for most life forms on Earth, is incorporated into the biochemistry of some organisms. Some marine algae incorporate arsenic into complex organic molecules such as arsenosugars and arsenobetaines. Fungi and bacteria can produce volatile methylated arsenic compounds. Arsenate reduction and arsenite oxidation have been observed in microbes ("Chrysiogenes arsenatis").
Fungal-bacterial endosymbiosis associations. What is known on these associations impacts our understanding of the ecological interactions of plants, fungi and bacteria. The classification of bacterial endosymbionts and their fungal partners occur across a diverse set of phyla. Ca. G. sporarum and Burkholderia sp. have been identified to be β-proteobacteria, a gram-negative class of bacteria, and N. punctiforme is a cyanobacteria . These phyla are not closely related showing that the capability of endosymbiosis with fungi is widely spread. A similar pattern is seen with the fungal partners with examples occurring across broad phyla/divisions such as Glomeromycota, Zygomycota, Ascomycota and Basidiomycota. The common