mixotrophicadj.

1900 A. J. Ewart tr. W. Pfeffer Physiol. Plants I. vii. 364 By others [sc. plants] a portion only of the organic food is drawn from the external world, the rest being supplied by the imperfectly developed chlorophyll-apparatus; such may be termed ‘mixotrophic’ plants.

1900 A. J. Ewart tr. W. Pfeffer Physiol. Plants I. vii. 364 All stages of transition between pure autotrophism and heterotrophism are exhibited among obligate or facultative mixotrophic plants.

1940 L. H. Hyman Invertebrates I. iii. 58 Nutrition [of Protozoa] is holophytic, saprozoic, holozoic, or mixotrophic.

1965 P. Bell & D. Coombe tr. Strasburger's Textbk. Bot. (new ed.) 5 Such mixotrophic organisms [sc. unicellular Protista](which obtain their energy partly directly as autotrophs, and partly indirectly as heterotrophs) are regarded as the starting-point of two great developmental series which have led on the one side to the ‘typical’ plants and on the other to the ‘typical’ animals.

1986 M. Kogut tr. H. G. Schlegel Gen. Microbiol. xi. 362 Some hydrogen bacteria can exhibit mixotrophic nutrition when the inorganic substrates (carbon dioxide and hydrogen) are present at the same time as organic substrate.

2017 F. Martin Molecular Mycorrhizal Symbiosis xxv. 462/1 The existence of a differential allocation of photosynthetic versus fungal resources in the different plant organs, as described for mixotrophic orchids.

1907 Q. Jrnl. Microsc. Sci. New Ser. 51 204 The green animal is nourished mixotrophically, viz. by (solid) ingested food, and by photosynthesised food-substances.

1971 K. Brinkmann in M. Menaker Biochronometry vi. 568 They were grown in an illuminated, thermostatically controlled chamber, either autotrophically or mixotrophically, in media.

1988 Jrnl. Bacteriol. 170 1986 Azotobacter vinelandii can grow mixotrophically with H₂ plus mannose under N₂-fixing conditions.

2014 L. de Boer in H. Zorn & P. Czermak Biotechnol. Food & Feed Additives ii. 61 Algae are able to grow photo-auto-, hetero-, and mixotrophically, depending on the organism and the growth conditions.