The " V . campbellii " strains PEL22A, BAA-1116, AND4 are known to be mixotrophic or more specifically photo ( organo ) heterotrophic.
12.
This symbiosis is mutualistic in the case of green orchids, but a partly or fully epiparasitic relationship in the case of myco-heterotrophic and mixotrophic orchids, respectively.
13.
While almost all phytoplankton species are obligate photoautotrophs, there are some that are mixotrophic and other, non-pigmented species that are actually heterotrophic ( the latter are often viewed as zooplankton ).
14.
Being entirely predatory and lacking any remnant plastid, their development as a phylum illustrates how predation and autotrophy are in dynamic balance and that the balance can swing one way or other at the point of origin of a new phylum from mixotrophic ancestors, causing one ability to be lost.
15.
Therefore, it may be speculated the metabolism of these bacteria, being either chemolithoautotrophic or mixotrophic, is strongly dependent on the uptake of reduced sulfur compounds, which occurs in many habitats only in deeper regions at or below the OATZ due to the rapid chemical oxidation of these reduced chemical species by oxygen or other oxidants in the upper layers.
