Holobiont.
Some researchers use the term "holobiont" to refer to an assemblage of different organisms that behaves as a unit. The word holobiont derives from the Greek word holos, which means "whole." Holobionts are the lichens of this world, more than the sum of their parts. Like symbiosis and ecology, holobiont is a word that does useful work. If we only have words that describe neatly bounded autonomous individuals, it is easy to think that they actually exist.