Complete Guide to Heterotrophic Nutrition

As you already know, there are certain organisms that are not capable of producing their own food, so instead, they depend on other organisms such as producers, for their nutrition. And here in this section to help you get a better understanding of Heterotrophic Nutrition, we are going to give a comprehensive description of this nutrition, and its varieties, while listing some of its popular examples. 

What is Heterotrophic Nutrition?

Firstly, for those people who are coming across this topic for the first time, here’s a brief description. Heterotrophic Nutrition is defined as the type of nutrition where the organisms need other organisms like plants and animals to provide food or nutrition for them. Besides, as you know, heterotrophs play a major role in the breakdown of complex food types into simple constituents that are organic and easier to consume. 

And because of this function, Heterotrophic Nutrition is differentiated into multiple types, such as,  

• Holozoic Nutrition. 
• Parasitic Nutrition. 
• Saprophytic Nutrition. 

Holozoic Nutrition

 This type of nutrition includes breaking down food, into simpler components, through the ingestion and digestion processes. Besides this, there are various other processes involved in Holozoic Nutrition such as assimilation, absorption, and excretion. In simple words, the nutrients and essential components in the food are extracted, and the other unusable components are excreted out of the body. 

Vertebrates, such as, Humans, Animals are some examples of organisms that employ Holozoic Nutrition. Other than this, this form of nutrition is also observed in unicellular organisms like Amoeba. And similar to the other types of nutrition, this can be found in three types of organisms, Herbivores, Omnivores, and Carnivores. 

Parasitic Nutrition

As you can guess from the name itself, these types of nutrition involve finding a suitable host organism and making food, by consuming their hosts. Besides, these parasites choose both animals and plants as their hosts and generally can be very dangerous for the survival of said hosts. As they are capable of severing important components of plants and animals, making them useless, or ultimately affecting various important functions of these organisms. Examples of Parasitic Organisms are Tape Worms, Louses, etc. 

Saprophytic Nutrition

The organisms which feed on a dead or decaying matter like termites, millipedes, and earthworms are called Decomposers. And the nutrition method employed by these decomposers is called Saprophytic Nutrition. Moreover, Saprophytic Nutrition plays an active role in cleaning our surroundings and breaking down complex decaying materials into consumable organic materials. This way the important nutrients entering the food cycle are once again entering back into the atmosphere.  

Conclusion

In this article, we have talked all about the examples of heterotrophs, types of heterotrophs, etc. And as you know, there are many complex topics or chapters in the biology subject, and the students cannot cover the vast syllabus on their own. This is why it is important to join Online Home Tutor platforms, such as Tutoroot. So that the students can get various amazing benefits such as expert staff guidance, access to the best study materials, special doubt-clearing sessions, and many more for cost-effective prices. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a heterotrophic mode of nutrition? 

This type of nutrition is defined as nutrition in which the organisms cannot produce their own food, and thus depend on other organisms for nutrition. 

How many types of heterotrophic nutrition? 

As explained in the above article, there are three types of heterotrophic nutrition Saprophytic Nutrition, Parasitic and Holozoic Nutrition.