auxotrophy
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English
Etymology
Noun
auxotrophy (usually uncountable, plural auxotrophies)
- (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.