Question

Are chemosynthetic bacteria: autotrophic or heterotrophic?

Answer 1

Chemosynthesis is a type of nutrition. In this type, the organisms convert the inorganic compounds into organic compounds by oxidation. Autotrophs are those organisms that are able to make their own food. On the other hand, the heterotrophs are those that are dependent on other organisms for their food.

Complete answer: Difference between autotrophs and heterotrophs:

Autotrophic Organisms	Heterotrophic Organisms
These organisms are able to make their own food. They are usually dependent on sunlight energy.	These organisms cannot make their own food and thus they depend on other organisms for their nutrition.
The source of energy is sunlight or chemicals.	The source of energy is autotrophs either directly or indirectly.
These are of two types; Photoautotrophs that utilizes sunlight energy and chemoautotrophs that utilize chemical energy.	These are also of two types; Photoheterotrophs that depend on light energy sources and chemoheterotrophs that depend on the chemical energy source.
The carbon source is inorganic carbon compounds.	The carbon source is organic carbon compounds.
Examples are Plants, Cyanobacteria, algae, etc.	Examples are Humans, fungi, animals, etc.

The chemosynthetic bacteria are bacteria that are able to convert inorganic compounds to organic compounds. When the bacteria convert inorganic compounds to organic compounds, energy is released which is used to synthesize carbohydrates. The process happens through the oxidation of inorganic chemicals. The chemosynthetic bacteria are found in sunlight deficient places. Due to the lack of light energy, they depend on chemical degradation and cannot perform photosynthesis. The chemosynthetic bacteria get their food in the form of chemicals from their surroundings in the form of nitrites, nitrates, ammonia, etc. Thus, they are not dependent on other life forms but they make their own food.
Therefore, from the above discussion, we can conclude that Chemosynthetic bacteria are autotrophic

Note: Chemoautotrophs are organisms that perform chemosynthesis. They include certain groups of bacteria such as sulfur-oxidizing gammaproteobacteria, epsilon proteobacteria, and neutrophilic iron-oxidizing bacteria, and certain archaea such as methanogenic archaea.