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Information about Saprotroph

A saprotroph (or saprobe) is an organism that obtains its nutrients from non-living organic matter, usually dead and decaying plant or animal matter, by absorbing soluble organic compounds. Since saprotrophs cannot make food for themselves, they are considered a type of heterotroph. They include many fungi (the rest being parasitic, commensal or mutualistic symbionts), bacteria, and protozoa. Animal scavengers, such as dung beetles, vultures, and a few unusual non-photosynthetic plants are also sometimes referred to as saprotrophs, but are more commonly called saprophages.

Saprophyte is an older term that is now considered obsolete. The suffix -phyte means "plant". However, there are no truly saprotrophic organisms that are embryophytes, and fungi and bacteria are no longer placed in the Plant Kingdom. Plants that were once considered saprophytes, such as non-photosynthetic orchids and monotropes, are now known to be parasites on other plants. They are termed myco-heterotrophs because a mycorrhizal fungus connects the parasitic plant with its host plant.

Some saprotrophic organisms are useful scavengers, and in sewage farms and refuse dumps break down organic matter into nutrients easily assimilable by green plants.

Further reading

heterotroph (Greek heterone = (an)other and trophe = nutrition) is an organism that requires organic substrates to get its carbon for growth and development. A heterotroph is known as a consumer in the food chain.
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Eukarya
Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
(unranked) Opisthokonta

Kingdom: Fungi
(L., 1753) R.T. Moore, 1980[1]

Subkingdom/Phyla

Chytridiomycota
Blastocladiomycota

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Parasitism is one version of symbiosis ("living together"), a phenomenon in which two organisms which are phylogenetically unrelated co-exist over a prolonged period of time, usually the lifetime of one of the individuals.
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Commensalism is a term employed in ecology to describe a relationship between two living organisms where one benefits and the other is not significantly harmed or helped. It is derived from the English word commensal
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Mutualism is a biological interaction between individuals of two different species, where both individuals derive a fitness benefit, for example increased survivorship. Similar interactions within a species are known as co-operation.
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symbiosis (from the Greek: συμ, sym, "with"; and βίοσίς, biosis, "living") can be used to describe various degrees of close relationship between organisms of different species.
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Bacteria

Phyla

Actinobacteria
Aquificae
Chlamydiae
Bacteroidetes/Chlorobi
Chloroflexi
Chrysiogenetes
Cyanobacteria
Deferribacteres
Deinococcus-Thermus
Dictyoglomi
Fibrobacteres/Acidobacteria
Firmicutes
Fusobacteria
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Protozoa (in Greek proto = first and zoa = animals) are one-celled eukaryotes (that is, unicellular microbes whose cells have membrane-bound nuclei) that commonly show characteristics usually associated with animals, mobility and heterotrophy.
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Scavengers are animals that consume already dead animals (carrion). Scavengers play an important role in the ecosystem by contributing to the decomposition of dead animal remains. Decomposers complete this process, by consuming the remains left by scavengers.
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Dung beetles are those beetles which feed partly or exclusively on feces. All of these species belong to the superfamily Scarabaeoidea; most of them to the subfamilies Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae of the family Scarabaeidae.
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VULTURE is the name of a fictional international crime cartel in the DC Comics universe. It first appeared in House of Mystery #160 July (1966), created by Jack Miller and Joe Certa.
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Detritivores (also known as detrivores or detritus feeders) are animals that consume detritus (decomposing organic material), and in doing so contribute to decomposition and the recycling of nutrients.
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Embryophyta

Divisions
  • Non-vascular land plants (bryophytes)
  • Marchantiophyta - liverworts
  • Anthocerotophyta - hornworts

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Plantae
Haeckel, 1866[1]

Divisions

Green algae
  • Chlorophyta
  • Charophyta
Land plants (embryophytes)
  • Non-vascular land plants (bryophytes)

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Orchidaceae
Juss.

Subfamilies
  • Apostasioideae
  • Cypripedioideae
  • Epidendroideae
  • Orchidoideae
  • Vanilloideae


Orchidaceae, also called the Orchid family, is the largest family of the flowering plants (Angiospermae).
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Monotropaceae was a small family of flowering plants under the old Cronquist system of plant classification. It included the eight genera Allotropa, Hemitomes, Monotropa, Monotropsis, Pityopus, Pleuricospora, Pterospora, Sarcodes.
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Myco-heterotrophy is a symbiotic relationship between certain kinds of plants and fungi, in which the plant gets all or part of its food from parasitism upon fungi rather than from photosynthesis. A myco-heterotroph is the parasitic plant partner in this relationship.
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Portable Document Format (PDF)

Adobe Reader displaying a PDF in Microsoft Windows Vista
File extension: .pdf
MIME type: application/pdf
Type code: 'PDF ' (including a single space)
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