Definition of auxotroph in English:
auxotroph
noun ˈɔːksətrɒfˈɔːksətrəʊf-ˌtrōf
Biology A mutant organism (especially a bacterium or fungus) that requires a particular additional nutrient which the normal strain does not.
Example sentencesExamples
- These mutations result in plants that are stunted, have dark green leaves and show defects in flower development and timing of flowering, but unlike GA auxotrophs these mutants are not rescued by GA application.
- Both of these mutants seem to be thiamin auxotrophs because they appeared normal when grown on media supplemented with 0.1 mM thiamin.
- While the purpose of early mutant isolations was mostly focused on the identification of auxotrophs, many of these early strains have been subjected to heavy mutagenesis.
- However, we observed that a fraction of survivors become uracil auxotrophs, because of repair events associated with more complex chromosomal rearrangements.
- Previous experiments had indicated that leu2 auxotrophs had no selective advantage in rich medium.
Derivatives
adjective
Biology Linear relationships have been found between increasing levels of the supplied amino acid and the bioluminescence emission of the auxotrophic mutant of E. coli carrying the lux system.
Example sentencesExamples
- The data indicate that the mutations complement with respect to the auxotrophic phenotype when grown on Sang's medium.
- A plasmid containing this 3.1 kb of wild-type genomic DNA was cotransfected with a trp1 plasmid into protoplasts isolated from an auxotrophic thn1 mutant strain.
- Previous work on Drosophila de novo purine synthesis genes showed that 4 mg/ml RNA supplementation can rescue the phenotype of auxotrophic mutants fed a defined medium.
- In addition to testing the generality of fungal survival factors, auxotrophic mutants allow several key aspects of fungal biology to be assessed in vivo.
Origin
1950s: from Latin auxilium 'help' + Greek trophos 'feeder'.