The pea aphid, a type of insect, contains light-capturing pigments in its exoskeleton. Pea aphids gained the ability to synthesize these pigments from genes transferred from fungi. While pea aphids do not have chloroplasts or fix carbon, researchers have found that pea aphids with more pigments have higher levels of ATP than those with fewer pigments. Pea aphids also have been shown to increase production of ATP when exposed to sunlight.

Based on this information, is the pea aphid a true autotroph?

A.
Yes, because the pea aphid can store energy from the sun in ATP molecules.
B.
Yes, because the pea aphid does not need to use energy from food.
C.
No, because the pea aphid is unable to use the energy from sunlight.
D.
No, because the pea aphid depends on genes from fungii to utilize energy from sunlight.

Answer: An autotroph is an organism that can generate it's own nutrients. In the example, you see a relationship which allows the pea aphid to gain more energy, but not produce it.

And hetertroph is an organisms that can't generate it's own nutrients, and therefore needs to feed on something, which is the case of pea aphids.

C is the answer

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TenishaTon TenishaTon · Answer 2 · 2019-12-12T07:19:38+01:00

Answer: Option C

Explanation:

No. Pea aphid is not an autotrophic organism as they are not able to use the sunlight and convert the radiant energy into chemical energy.

This energy is used by the organism for the various types of metabolic activities that occurs inside the organism.

For an organism to be autotrophic in nature, it must have the ability to convert sunlight into carbohydrates by the help of chlorophyll in the organelle chloroplast.

So, the pea aphids cannot be considered as true autotrophs.