Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- Heterotrophic Organisms
- Saprophytes
- Summary
- What’s Next?
In the previous segment of the chapter of ‘Nutrition in Plants’, we studied the process of photosynthesis. In this segment, let us learn about saprophytic nutrition.
What are Heterotrophic organisms?
- Organisms which are unable to prepare their own food are called Heterotrophs or Heterotrophic organisms.
- They depend on other living or dead organisms for their food.
- Based on their food habit, they can be broadly divided into four major categories:
- Saprophytes
- Parasites
- Holozoic organisms
- Symbionts
What are Saprophytes?
- The non-green organisms that derive nutrition from the dead, decaying, and rotting matter are called Saprophytes.
For example, fungi like yeast, mouldy bread, mushrooms, etc. These organisms do not possess chlorophyll pigment in them so they are called Achlorophyllous.
Different types of fungi
- Saprophytes contain chemicals called Digestive enzymes, which help break down the complex molecules of food into simpler ones.
- They secrete and release various digestive enzymes from their body onto the decaying matter which will break down the complex molecules in the matter.
- Once the breakdown is completed, they absorb the nutrients easily. This absorption occurs because the nutrients are dissolved in the water present around and directly absorbed by the saprophyte.
Fungi releasing digestive enzymes
- Apart from fungi, there are some bacteria which also depend on dead organisms to sustain their life. Thus, they are also included in Saprophytes.
