Crossword clues for chemosynthesis
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Chemosynthesis \Chem`o*syn"the*sis\, n. [Chemical + synthesis.] (Plant Physiol.) Synthesis of organic compounds by energy derived from chemical changes or reactions. Chemosynthesis of carbohydrates occurs in the nitrite bacteria through the oxidation of ammonia to nitrous acid, and in the nitrate bacteria through the conversion of nitrous into nitric acid. -- Chem`o*syn*thet"ic, a.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. the production of carbohydrates and other compounds from simple compounds such as carbon dioxide, using the oxidation of chemical nutrients as a source of energy rather than sunlight; it is limited to certain bacteria and fungi
WordNet
n. synthesis of carbohydrate from carbon dioxide and water; limited to certain bacteria and fungi
Wikipedia
In biochemistry, chemosynthesis is the biological conversion of one or more carbon molecules (usually carbon dioxide or methane) and nutrients into organic matter using the oxidation of inorganic compounds (e.g. hydrogen gas, hydrogen sulfide) or methane as a source of energy, rather than sunlight, as in photosynthesis. Chemoautotrophs, organisms that obtain carbon through chemosynthesis, are phylogenetically diverse, but groups that include conspicuous or biogeochemically-important taxa include the sulfur-oxidizing gamma and epsilon proteobacteria, the aquificaeles, the methanogenic archaea and the neutrophilic iron-oxidizing bacteria.
Many microorganisms in dark regions of the oceans also use chemosynthesis to produce biomass from single carbon molecules. Two categories can be distinguished. In the rare sites at which hydrogen molecules (H) are available, the energy available from the reaction between CO and H (leading to production of methane, CH) can be large enough to drive the production of biomass. Alternatively, in most oceanic environments, energy for chemosynthesis derives from reactions in which substances such as hydrogen sulfide or ammonia are oxidized. This may occur with or without the presence of oxygen.
Many chemosynthetic microorganisms are consumed by other organisms in the ocean, and symbiotic associations between chemosynthesizers and respiring heterotrophs are quite common. Large populations of animals can be supported by chemosynthetic secondary production at hydrothermal vents, methane clathrates, cold seeps, whale falls, and isolated cave water.
It has been hypothesized that chemosynthesis may support life below the surface of Mars, Jupiter's moon Europa, and other planets. <!--I am commenting this out because the reaction is wrong (it is unbalanced in oxygen) and since there's no reference. Thermodynamically it shouldn't be possible to make glucose and sulfur from CO2, H2S, and water. Eric Kvaalen
Usage examples of "chemosynthesis".
This was a living system based not on photosynthesis but on chemosynthesis, an arrangement that biologists would have dismissed as preposterous had anyone been imaginative enough to suggest it.
In the absence of sunlight, creatures depended on chemosynthesis, the transformation of chemical, rather than light, energy into life.
To discover evidence that chemosynthesis was possible, to record that evidence, to prove its existence beyond all reasonable doubtthis was his assignment, a photographer's dream.
Cut out a lot of the talky crap about chemosynthesis and photosynthesis, splice in some older material showing horrible-looking wriggly worms, add shots of the pressure gauges running up past maximum.