chem·o·lith·o·au·to·troph

(chē′mō-lĭth′ō-ô′tə-trŏf′, -trōf′, kĕm′ō-)

A chemosynthetic organism that obtains energy from the oxidation of inorganic compounds and uses carbon dioxide as its sole source of carbon for growth. Also called chemoautotroph, chemolithotroph.

che′mo·lith′o·au′to·troph′ic adj.

che′mo·lith′o·au·tot′ro·phy (-ô-tŏt′rə-fē) n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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References in periodicals archive

Metagenome of a versatile chemolithoautotroph from expanding oceanic dead zones.

Origins and evolutionary flexibility of chemosynthetic symbionts from deep-sea animals

crunogena is an obligate chemolithoautotroph found in deep sea hydrothermal vents in the East Pacific Rise.

Cellular, Molecular and Developmental Biology

The genome of deep-sea vent chemolithoautotroph Thiomicrospira crunogena XCL-2.

Coupling metabolite flux to transcriptomics: insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying primary productivity by the hydrothermal vent tubeworm ridgeia piscesae

Nitrification bacteria are generally considered to be obligate chemolithoautotrophs, which means that nitrification is their only source of energy and they can only acquire C through fixation.

Diversity and kinetics of bacterial nitrification isolated from soil of rubber and oil palm plantation in Jambi Indonesia

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