Prototrophy

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Prototrophy is a term from microbiology and describes the ability of living things (especially bacteria or yeast strains) to be able to synthesize all the necessary organic growth factors (supplines) themselves. A living being with this ability is called a prototroph .

The opposite of prototrophy is called auxotrophy .

example

The leu + strain of Escherichia coli is prototrophic with respect to the amino acid leucine , the leu - strain is auxotrophic for leucine, so it has to absorb this substance from the environment or the culture medium.

literature

  • Georg Fuchs, Thomas Eitinger, Hans Günter Schlegel: General microbiology. Georg Thieme, 2007. ISBN 9783134446081 . P. 229.