User:Akardoust

http://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/immunology-and-microbiology/auxotrophy

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167730608605098

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK22011/

Cells are usually prototrophic but some can be auxotrophic, meaning they would need that certain metabolite to grow. The "wild type" cell is prototrophic and noted as "+" or "WT" in relation to the metabolite while the auxotrophic version is noted with a "-" in relation to the metabolite. For example, a cell can be noted as "his-" if it needs histidine or "his+" if it does not.

DIAGRAM

Consider this diagram of two colonies of bacteria place on different media. If it is assumed that colony A is prototrophic and colony B is auxotrophic to metabolite "1", then A can grown on any minimal media. Colony B, however, can only grow if there is at least minimal media and metabolite "1".

Peer Review (Kristen)

I thought your article was really good and was simplified enough to understand. Also, it was well organized and expanded well on the topic. Some suggestions:
 * Since the article is on autotrophy, not prototrophy maybe have a separate section where you talk about prototrophy rather than having it in the lead
 * Expand more on each paragraph in the auxotrophic genetics section.
 * Maybe add some images that exhibit auxotrophy. For example, having two different plates with different growth requirements, one in which colonies/auxotrophs grew.
 * Adding a subsection on replica plating under applications and how this plating tests for auxotrophy might be helpful for people who don’t know what replica plating is
 * Add more citations to validate statements, especially auxotrophy in genetics section
 * You could add a section that talks about different types of auxotrophs you can have or experiments that have been done to find them (temperature dependent, amino acid requirements, vitamin requirements, etc)