Chapter 8, Problem 1SA

Summary Introduction

To review:

The difference between auxotroph and prototroph.

Introduction:

Biological processes require two of the basic component called energy and nutrition. The nutritional requirement in an organism depends on the biochemical composition of the cell. Prototroph is awild strain organism thatrequires growth factor for metabolic processes. Prototrophs depends on the inorganic source (hydrogen, phosphorus, and sulfate) and glucose. Moreover, auxotrophs are the mutant organisms who require additional nutrient growth factor for their survival.

Explanation of Solution

The differences between the two groups namely the auxotroph and prototroph are given in the table below:

Auxotroph	Prototroph
Auxotroph is the mutant strains and requires additional nutrient in growth media.	The organismuses glucose and inorganic compounds for metabolic processes.
Requires particular additional nutrient for their growth and survival	Microorganism does not require growth factor.
These are derived fromprototrophand usually result of mutation.	These organisms have the samemetabolic capabilities and nutritional requirements as theparent strain (wild-type).
They grow only on enriched media.	They grow on minimal media as well on enriched media.
These organisms are created by causing mutation in their genome, forexample, yeast containing orotidine-5´ phosphate decarboxylase gene is inactivated which is called uracil auxotroph.	For example, common species of intestinal bacteria Escherichia coli.

Conclusion

Therefore, it can be concluded that auxotroph is the mutant strainand requires nutritional growth factor, whereas prototroph fixes inorganiccompoundsto perform metabolic reactions.