autotroph
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autotroph
[′ȯd·ō‚träf] (biology)
An organism capable of synthesizing organic nutrients directly from simple inorganic substances, such as carbon dioxide and inorganic nitrogen.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
References in periodicals archive
Life exists in two major forms: phototrophs and
chemotrophs. The former capture the energy of the sun via a process known as photosynthesis and use this energy to produce organic compounds.
Most of the bacteria identified are
chemotrophs involved in nutrient cycling, especially carbon or nitrogen.
The phototrophs and
chemotrophs (collectively called autotrophs) use energy sources that are inorganic (sunlight and chemical energy respectively), whereas heterotrophs acquire their energy by consuming organics (see Table 2).
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