English

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Etymology

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From auxo- +‎ -trophy.

Noun

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auxotrophy (usually uncountable, plural auxotrophies)

  1. (biology) The inability of a microorganism to synthesize an organic compound required for its growth, often as a result of mutation.
    • 1951 March, K. C. Atwood, “Periodic Selection in Escherichia Coli”, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, volume 37, number 3, page 146:
      There are reasons for believing that the mutation rates to auxotrophy are in general higher than the rates to prototrophy.

Coordinate terms

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