∞ generated and posted on 2016.01.27 ∞
Organism that obtains both its energy and its carbon from organic compounds.
We are chemoheterotrophs as too are fungi. Glycolysis and cellular respiration describe how organic compounds such as glucose can be tapped for their energy (chemotrophic energy transduction).
Organic compounds also serve as our source of organic carbon from which our bodies are assembled, that is, the carbon structures making up proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, and carbohydrates (heterotrophic acquisition of organic carbon).
Note that the organic compounds that chemoheterotrophs consume are breakdown products of other organisms, that is, ecologically chemoheterotrophs are consumers.