Florida Statewide Science Assessment (SSA) Practice Exam

Autotrophy is the ability to make your own organic matter from inorganic carbon sources. In photosynthetic autotrophs, energy from sunlight drives the production of sugars from carbon dioxide and water. Some bacteria are chemolithoautotrophs, using energy from inorganic chemical reactions to fix carbon even without light. This contrasts with heterotrophs, which must consume other organisms to obtain carbon and energy. The terms eukaryotic and prokaryotic describe cell organization, not how an organism obtains its food, and there are autotrophs in both groups.