Courses
Courses for Kids
Free study material
Offline Centres
More
Store Icon
Store
seo-qna
SearchIcon
banner

What is the difference between chemoorganotrophs and heterotrophs?

Answer
VerifiedVerified
443.7k+ views
like imagedislike image
Hint: Primary nutritional groups are groups of species classified according to their nutrition mode and the energy and carbon sources required for survival, development, and reproduction. Energy can be derived from light or chemical compounds, and carbon can come from organic or inorganic sources.

Complete answer:
CHEMOORGANOTROPHSHETEROTROPHS
A chemoorganoheterotroph organism gets its carbon from organic substrates for growth and development and gets its energy from the decomposition, also oxidation, of an organic compound.A heterotroph is an organism that cannot produce its food by carbon fixation and must rely on other sources of organic carbon, primarily plant or animal matter, for nutrition.
Chemoorganotrophs are species that receive electrons or hydrogen from organic compounds such as sugars, fats, and proteins and use chemical bonds in organic compounds or oxygen as their energy source.Heterotrophs can use all of the energy they consume for growth, reproduction, and other biological functions by consuming reduced carbon compounds.
This community of species can be subdivided further based on the type of organic substrate and compound they consume.Heterotrophs are of two types. Photoheterotrophs use light for electricity, but they can't use carbon dioxide as their sole carbon source, so they have to rely on organic compounds from their surroundings. Photoheterotrophs include heliobacteria and some proteobacteria.
Decomposers are chemoorganoheterotrophs that feed on dead organic matter to obtain carbon, electrons, and hydrogen. Organisms such as herbivores and carnivores derive carbon, electrons, and hydrogen from living organic matter.Chemoheterotrophs get their energy from preformed organic energy sources like lipids, carbohydrates, and proteins that have already been synthesized by other species.


Note:
Carbon fixation is the conversion of inorganic carbon (CO2) into organic compounds including carbohydrates, which is generally accomplished by photosynthesis. Autotrophs are organisms that can produce their nutrition by carbon fixation.