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1. Nutritional needs
- All animals are heterotrophs: They must obtain energy and nourishment from molecules made by other organisms.
- Basic nutrients = carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, minerals, vitamins. (underlined can serve as energy sources).
- Food is used for two purposes: fuel (to provide energy for cellular metabolism) and as a source of building blocks (monomers for cellular biosynthesis)
2. Food processing
- ingestion, digestion, absorption, elimination. We will be concentrating on digestion, absorption.
3. Digestion = hydrolysis - breakdown
of macromolecules by the addition of water to form monomers; enzymes are called
hydrolases.
----- + H2O --> -----OH + H-
MACROMOLECULES MONOMERS
Carbohydrates (polysaccarides) monosaccharides
Proteins amino acids
Nucleic acids nucleotides
(rem. phosphate -> nucleosides)
Lipids glycerol & fatty acids
4. Organismic strategies
a. No digestive system: sponges: intracellular digestion
b. Incomplete digestive system: single chamber; extracell. digest. [hydra, jellyfish: one opening; planaria (flatworms): extensive branching of gut.]
c. Complete digestive system: sequential, with specialized regions; two openings: mouth, anus; circ. system for distribution. [earthworm, humans]
1. Mechanical breakdown
- biting, chewing, grinding, "emulsification"
Increases surface area for enzymatic attack
2. Chemical breakdown
- takes place extracellularly in gut "lumen"
- takes place in on an assembly line (continual, sequential processing) in which food is moved through system & mixed by peristalsis
3. Pathway [Fig. 42.4]
- mouth --> pharynx --> esophagus --> stomach --> small intestine --> large intestine --> rectum --> anus
4. Five major secretory organs
- salivary glands, stomach, liver (+ gallbladder), pancreas, small intestine
- Salivary glands
- secretes approx. 1 liter saliva / day; salivary amylase begins breakdown of carbohydrates (CHOs)
- Stomach
- secretes gastric juice; parietal cells in gastric glands secrete HCl; chief cells in gastric glands secrete pepsinogen which is converted to pepsin at low pH.
- HCl activates pepsinogen and kills most foreign bacteria ingested with food.
- pepsin hydrolyses protein into short polypeptides.
- Liver
- scretes bile which is stored in gallbladder; detergent-like action (= emulsification) disperses fat into small droplets for enzymatic attack by lipases.
[Note: bile contains no digestive enzymes]
- Pancreas
- secretes sodium bicarbonate and a number of digestive enzymes (hydrolases)
- bicarbonate neutralizes acidity -- pancr. enzymes active at pH 7 - 8.
- pancreatic hydrolases: trypsin, chymotrypsin (digest polypeptides to dipeptides); lipase (digests fats); pancreatic amylase (breakdown of CHOs to disaccharides); ribonuclease, deoxyribonuclease (degrades RNA, DNA into free nucleotides).
[Note: separate tissues in pancreas secrete insulin, glucagon into blood]
- Small intestine
- secretes numerous enzymes which complete breakdown to monomers [example: lactase splits lactose (a disaccharide) into glucose and galactose (monosaccharides)]
- most chemical digestion takes place in the initial portion of the small intestine called the duodenum
- absorption of products takes place along the rest of the small intestine.
5. Absorption of monomers
- takes place across wall of small intestine
- Structure of small intestine provides large surface area
[Fig. 42.8]- long, folded tube (approx. 6 meters)
- villi = finger-like projections of the gut epithelium into lumen
- microvilli = microscopic projections of cell membrane into lumen (= brush border)- Mechanisms [Fig. 42.10, part 1]
- facilitated diffusion (selective transport proteins; high conc. --> low conc.; example: fructose)
- active transport (selective, requires energy (ATP) examples: glucose, amino acids)- Uptake by circulatory systems
- intestinal villi contain blood capillaries, lymph vessels [Fig. 42.9]
- blood capillaries take up monomers (= glucose, amino acids, nucleosides) and short chain fatty acids --> transport in blood from intestines to liver (via hepatic portal system)
- lymph vessels (lacteals) take up triglycerides (chylomicrons) and later empties them into the blood
6. How fats are handled [Fig. 42.10, part 2]
- Conditions in the intestine do not yield complete hydrolysis of lipids. Products include monoglycerides and some diglycerides as well as glycerol and free fatty acids.
- Inside intestinal cells, triglycerides are resythesized from gycerol and fatty acids and packaged into chylomicrons which are then transported by lymph system and dumped into blood. Only short-chain fatty acids are directly absorbed from small intestine into blood.
7. Large intestine (colon)
- approx. 90% of water in chyme is absorbed in the small intestine; the remaining 10% is absorbed in the large intestine along with sodium
- bacteria in colon (E. coli) produce vitamin K and some B vitamins.
- approx. 1/3 of feces is bacteria; remainder is undigestable material -- particularly cellulose
1. Calories -- Energy input = Energy
output --> no weight gain. Energy input > Energy output --> weight
gain.
2. "Essential" amino acids -- 8 out of 20 cannot
be sythesized to meet body's need. [Most plant proteins are "incomplete"
and lack one or more essential a.a.s - typically lysine, tryptophan, threonine.
"Complete" proteins found in eggs, milk, meat, fish.]
3. "Essential" fatty acids -- some fatty acids cannot
be synthesized by the body; linoleic acid is an example
4. Vitamins -- organic compounds required in small amounts;
body cannot synthesize. Fat-soluble = A, D, E, K; can accumulate to toxic levels.
Water-soluble = B, C vitamins.
5. Minerals -- Ca, Na, K, Mg, Cl, Sulfur, Phosphorus
