autotroph

noun

Etymology: From auto- (from Ancient Greek αὐτο- (auto-, “self-”)) + -troph (from Ancient Greek τροφή (trophḗ, “nourishment”)).

1. Any organism that can synthesize its food from inorganic substances, using heat or light as a source of energy.

   “It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted.”