Distinguish between saprophytic and parasitic modes of life.

Some bacteria feed on decaying matter

Decayto become decomposed; rot: vegetation that was decaying.

decaying matter like rotten trunk or leaves of plants.We call these plants as host plants

• These nitrates are taken up by plants roots and

• These nitrates are taken up by roots and converted in to new amino acids and proteins

•These saprotrophs are also called heterotrophs

Heterotrophs

• They are incapable of manufacturing organic compounds from simple inorganic nutrients and so they obtain organic molecules from the environment in the form of food.

• 'Sapros' refers to rotten and 'trophic' refers to food

Examples of saprophytes:

(plants which have saprotrophic nutrition) are Rhizopus (bread mould),

Mucor (pin mould), Yeast, Agaricus (mushroom), many bacteria etc.

Parasitic NutritionFeeding by

living in an organismOr

On organism (host)

Host

• Belongs to different species

• Is called Parasitic Nutrition

Examples of parasites

• Puccinia• Dodder(Cuscuta)

• Puccinia is a genus of fungi

Puccinia

Dodder (leafless plant)

• After a dodder attaches itself to a plant, it wraps itself around it. If the host contains food beneficial to dodder, the dodder produces haustoria that insert themselves into the vascular system of the host.

• Dodder is parasitic on a very wide variety of plants, including a number of agricultural and horticultural crop species• E.g potatoes

• Horticulture is the science, art, technology and business involved in intensive plant cultivation for human use. It is practiced from the individual level in a garden up to the activities of a multinational corporation.

Why normal nutrition not possible in parasite plants

• Some of these plants have no chlorophyll and are entirely dependent on the host for food and water• Others are green and can

produce some or all of their own food.