1. Organisms, especially microorganisms or mutant strains, that cannot synthesize one or more essential compounds and therefore require them to be supplied in the growth medium.
Usage: technical; biology; plural form of auxotroph

Examples

• Auxotrophs are commonly used in laboratory genetics experiments to study metabolic pathways.
• The researcher isolated several auxotrophs that lacked the ability to produce specific amino acids.
• Unlike wild-type bacteria, auxotrophs depend on external nutrient supplementation to survive.
• Auxotrophs have been instrumental in understanding gene function through complementation analysis.
• The mutant auxotrophs required leucine and histidine to be added to the minimal medium.