Question

Osmotrophs are
A. Bacteria
B. Fungi
C. Both A and B
D. Algae

Answer 1

Hint: Plants and animals require nutrition to grow. They can either make their food or can obtain it from the other sources. Autotrophy and heterotrophy make the most of the nutritions. Photosynthetic organisms usually make their food as they have the pigments for making so. The heterotrophs will rely on some external source.

Complete answer:
Osmotrophs are the heterotrophic organisms. They tend to absorb organic substances in the solution form.
Osmotrophy gathers nutrients in organisms relying on the cellular surface area to make the proper diffusion of nutrients in the cell. Fluid motion and movement is an important feature of osmotrophs.

Let us see which organisms can support the osmotrophy process.
> Option A: Bacteria: They are unicellular simple prokaryotes who cannot synthesize food themselves usually. So they feed on others via heterotrophy. Thus they can do osmotrophy and uptake the food from an external source.

> Option B: Fungi: Fungi are mostly the heterotrophs that depend on others for their food requirements. Thus they also perform osmotrophy.

> Option D: Algae: Algae is the green photosynthetic organisms usually which can make their food so they do not have to perform osmotrophy.

Hence, the correct answer is option (C).

Note: As the organism grows, the surface area per volume ratio decreases making it difficult for the nutrients to be absorbed. The body adaptation will make this problem to be solved as it happens in the tapeworms. They flatten their body to increase the surface area per volume ratio to enhance osmotrophy.