Week 7: Part 1: Digestion

Please read Chapter 21 of the textbook.

Why do we eat?
All animals must eat to gain:
 Energy
 Building blocks to assemble new molecules
Animals must also obtain:
 ______________________
 Minerals
Animals eat in a variety of ways:
Herbivores eat plants and algae (e.g. gorillas and snails)
Carnivores eat other animals (e.g. spiders and whales)
Omnivores eat plants and animals (e.g. humans and cockroaches)
May get their food by:
 Capturing food from surroundings (suspension feeders)
 Living on their food source and eating as needed (substrate feeders)
 Consuming food in fluids (fluid feeders)
 Swallowing large pieces of food or whole prey (__________________ feeders)
 Requires food processing
Food processing occurs in four stages
1. Ingestion: the act of eating
2. Digestion: the breaking down of food into molecules small enough for the body to absorb
3. ___________: the take-up of the products of digestion, usually by cells lining the
digestive tract
4. Elimination: the removal of undigested materials from the digestive tract
Chemical digestion
Chemical digestion: process where polymers are broken down into monomers
Requires hydrolysis of covalent bonds
These reactions are:
Catabolic ____________________________
Endergonic ____________________________

Digestion occurs in specialized compartments

Most animals have a specialized digestive tract
Food is digested in compartments that contain special hydrolytic enzymes
Relatively simple animals have _________________ cavity or a single sac with an opening
(mouth)
E.g. Hydra

The alimentary canal

In most animals, the digestive compartment = alimentary canal
 Tube that runs from opening to opening (mouth to anus)
 Divided into specialized regions that process food sequentially
Main specialized compartments in the order of processing:
 Pharynx
 Esophagus
 Crop: pouch that softens and pre-digests food
 Stomach
 _________________: grinds up food
 Intestine
 Anus
Remember: movement of food = ONE WAY
The human digestive system
Consists of the alimentary canal plus accessory glands
What are the organs of the human digestive system?
Digestive glands secrete enzymes to break down food
 Salivary glands
 Gallbladder
 Pancreas
 Liver
Digestion begins in the oral cavity
Teeth break up food: 4 kinds of teeth
 __________ bite
 Canines tear
 Premolars and molars grind and tear
Salivary glands produce saliva
 Lubricates food for passage
 Buffers neutralize acids
 Antimicrobial agents kill microbes
 Salivary amylase starts the chemical digestion of starch
The tongue pushes the chewed food (bolus) into the pharynx
Swallowing

Both food and oxygen enter through the pharynx

Epiglottis: flap of tissue that covers the opening to the trachea
 Prevents entry of food into the windpipe
Esophageal sphincter: regulates opening of the esophagus  OPEN during swallowing
 What is a sphincter?

How does food move through the digestive tract?

The esophagus pushes food along to the stomach
Peristalsis: rapid muscular contractions of smooth muscle in the esophagus move boluses into the
stomach
 Fast! Takes 5-10 seconds
 The intestines also do this
Cardiac sphincter (lower ________________ sphincter) regulates the passage of food from the
esophagus into the stomach
The stomach stores and breaks down food
The stomach can stretch and has the capacity for up to 2 L of food and drink
 Sits just under the ________________
Responsible for mechanical and chemical digestion
The function of the stomach
Secretes gastric juices, including:
 Mucus
 _____________: enzyme that breaks covalent bonds in protein -> peptides
 Strong acid (pH 2)
o Kills ingested bacteria
o Breaks apart cells in food
o Denatures proteins

Muscles in the stomach churn food

The stomach churns food with gastric juice every 20 seconds -> mixture called gastric
______________
Stomach has two openings:
 Cardiac sphincter
 Pyloric sphincter: opens to allow gastric chyme into the small intestine

Gastric ulcers afflict the stomach

Gastric ulcers are open sores in the stomach lining
Prior to the 1980s, ulcers were thought to be caused by excessive stress
A spiral-shaped bacterium called _________________________ can infect the stomach lining
 Growth of H. pylori erodes the protective mucus and damages the lining
The small intestine (SI) is subdivided into three sections
Duodenum: shortest segment (~25 cm) of the SI
 Begins at pyloric sphincter; merges with the jejunum
 Mixes chyme and secretions from the pancreas, liver and gallbladder.
Jejunum: ~1 m long
 Continues chemical digestion and nutrient absorption
Ileum: ~ 2 m long
 Ends at the ileocecal sphincter, to join the SI to the large intestine
 Nutrient absorption
The function of the SI and the accessory organs
The SI is the major organ for chemical digestion and nutrient absorption
Two accessory organs aid in digestion in the SI:
1. ___________________
 Produces digestive enzymes and an alkaline solution (bicarbonate) to neutralize acidic
chyme
 Enzymes include: pancreatic amylase, trypsin, chymotrypsin, peptidase, nucleases, and
pancreatic lipase.

2. ___________________
 Produces bile, which is then stored in the gallbladder
o Gallbladder empties bile into SI during digestion
  Bile emulsifies fat
o Emulsification breaks large hydrophobic fat droplets into smaller droplets
o Prepares fat for attack by pancreatic lipase

Chemical digestion in the small intestine

Can you name the four classes of macromolecules?

Digestion of many molecules can be performed by enzymes secreted by the pancreas AND from
the wall of the small intestine (e.g. lactase, maltase, etc.)
Summary of chemical digestion in the small intestine
Maltase, sucrase, and lactase are made in the cells of nonciliated simple columnar epithelium
lining the duodenum and secreted into the lumen
Structure of the small intestine (SI)
Recall: an _______________ is two or more tissues that perform a coordinate function
The SI is a tubular organ:
 Outer layer = epithelial tissue
 Intermediate layer of smooth muscle
 The inside of the SI is lined with epithelial tissue
 All the layers are connected by connective tissue

The epithelial lining of the SI has a large surface area

The lining of the small intestine has a large surface area
Intestinal folds, villi, and microvilli all increase surface area
 Absorptive surface area of the SI ~300 m2 = size of a tennis court
The small intestine is specialized for ______________________
Nutrients pass into the epithelial cells of the villi
Fatty acids and glycerol-> fats and transported into lymph
Other absorbed nutrients – amino acids, sugars, and nucleotides – pass into blood and then are
transported to the liver
The liver processes nutrient-rich blood transported from the intestines
Blood travels from the intestines to the liver via the hepatic portal vein
The liver:
 Stores nutrients
 Detoxifies toxic substances
 Converts nutrients to other useable molecules
 Makes_________________
The large intestine compacts feces
Undigested material passes to the ~2 m (5 cm diameter) large intestine (LI) or colon
Also absorbs water
 Feces are produced and compacted
 Feces are undigested materials (cellulose, fiber) + bile salts + bacteria
Certain bacteria that inhabit the LI are essential for vitamin production:
 Vitamin K
 ______________________
 B vitamins

The large intestine is not the only part of the digestive tract with beneficial bacteria
There are hundreds of bacteria in the stomach
 Few species
There are millions in the large intestine
 Many species!
Collectively known as the gut ___________________________
The rectum stores feces
The rectum is a muscular organ at the end of the large intestine
 Stores feces until they are eliminated
Two sphincters:
1. An involuntary sphincter between the LI and the rectum
2. A voluntary sphincter between the rectum and the anus