Transcript The Digestive System

The Digestive System


Heterotrophs take in organic molecules
synthesized by other animals.
1. Digestion provides energy needed to carry
out routine metabolic activities and maintain
homeostasis.
2. The digestive tract:
a. ingests food,
b. breaks down food into small molecules
that can cross plasma membranes.
c. absorbs these nutrient molecules, and
d. eliminates nondigestible remains.
Incomplete versus Complete
Digestive System

Incomplete gut
– Digestive system contains only a mouth, a
pharynx, and an intestine.
– Digestive enzymes in gastrovascular cavity
allow some extracellular digestion.
– Digestion is finished intra-cellularly by cells
that line the cavity; food diffuses to nearby
cells.
– Digestive system lacks regions of specialized
function.
Incomplete versus Complete
Digestive System

Complete digestive tract is composed of a tube with a
mouth at one end and an anus at the other end.
– Different regions have specialized functions (e.g.,
ingestion, mechanical digestion, etc.).
– Muscular pharynx draws in food with sucking action.
– Crop is storage area with expansive walls.
– Gizzard has thick muscular walls to grind food.
– Digestion occurs in intestine, outside of cells
– Surface area for absorption is increased by intestinal
folding.
– Undigested remains exit the body at anus
Continuous versus
Discontinuous Feeders

Continuous feeders, often called a filter feeder.
– Water moves into a mantle cavity through an incurrent
siphon and deposits particles on gills.
– Cilia move particles to labial palps which direct them
into mouth and to stomach.
– Digestive enzymes from a digestive glands help
complete digestion.
– Marine fanworms are sessile filter feeders; only small
particles are consumed.
– Baleen whales are active filter feeders; baleen (fringe)
filters small krill from water.
Continuous versus
Discontinuous Feeders

Discontinuous feeders
– Squids are an example
a. Head of a squid has ten arms; two arms seize
prey and bring it to the squid's mouth.
b. Beak-like jaws and a radula (toothy tongue)
reduce food to pieces.
c. Esophagus leads to a stomach that holds food
until digestion is complete.
d. Discontinuous feeders require a storage
region in their gut.
Adaptation to Diet

Animals are:
– herbivores (eat plants) or;
– carnivores (eat animals) or;
– omnivores (eat both).

Mammal dentition differs according to mode of
nutrition.
– Omnivores, including humans, have dentition that
accommodate a vegetable diet and a meat diet.
– Omnivore teeth include incisors (shearing), canines
(tearing), premolars (grinding), and molars (crushing).
– Herbivores have large, flat premolars and molars for
grinding plant matter.
Adaptation to Diet
– Grazers (e.g., horses) also have sharp incisors for clipping off grass
and leaves.
– Hard to digest plant material requires extensive grinding to disrupt
plant cell walls.
– Animals that feed on plants may have long and complex digestive
tracts and bacteria in their digestive
tracts that can digest cellulose, producing nutrients that an animal
can use.
– Some grazers have a rumen to digest chewed grasses; partially
digested cud is rechewed.
– Carnivores' pointed incisors and canines tear off pieces small
enough to swallow.
» Meat is rich in protein and fatty acids and is easier to digest
than plant material.
» Carnivores have fewer molars for grinding and a shorter
digestive tract with less specialization.
Human Digestive Tract
1. Human digestive tract is complete and complex
2. Each part of the digestive system has a specific
functio
3. Digestion of food in humans is an extracellular
process.
4. Enzymes are secreted into the digestive tract by
nearby glands which never contain food
themselves.
5. Digestion requires a cooperative effort by
production of hormones and actions of nervous
system.
Human Digestive Tract
Mouth




Human dentition has many specializations because humans
are omnivores.
Food is chewed in the mouth and mixed with saliva.
– Three pairs of salivary glands secrete saliva by way of
ducts into the mouth.
– Salivary amylase is enzyme that begins starch
digestion; maltose is common end product.
Salivary amylase
starch + H2O  maltose
Food is manipulated by a muscular tongue with touch and
pressure receptors.
Food is chewed and mixed with saliva to form a bolus in
preparation for swallowing.
Human Digestive Tract
Pharynx and the Esophagus

Digestive and respiratory passages come
together in pharynx, then separate.
– During swallowing, path of air to lungs could
be blocked if food entered trachea.
– Epiglottis covers opening into trachea as
muscles move bolus through pharynx into
esophagus.
– Esophagus is a muscular tube that moves
swallowed food to stomach by peristalsis.
Human Digestive Tract
Stomach

Stomach stores a liters of partially digested
food freeing humans from continual eating.
– Gastric juice produced by cells of gastric
glands.
– Walls of the stomach contract vigorously and
mix food with juices secreted when food enters.
– Gastric juice contains hydrochloric acid and
another digestive substance, pepsin.
– Gastric juices are produced independently of
protective mucous secretions.
Human Digestive Tract
Stomach
– Hydrochloric acid (HCl) lowers pH of the gastric
contents to about 2.
» Epithelial lining of the stomach has millions of gastric pits
leading to gastric glands.
» This acid kills most bacteria and other microorganisms.
» Low pH also stops activity of salivary amylase and promotes
activity of pepsin.
– Pepsin is a hydrolytic enzyme that acts on proteins to
produce peptides.
Pepsin
protein + H2O  peptides
Human Digestive Tract
Stomach



A thick layer of mucus protects wall of the stomach and first part of
duodenum from HCl and pepsin.
– Ulcers develop when lining is exposed to digestive action; recent
research indicates this is usually due to
infection by Helicobacter pylori bacteria.
Stomach contents, a thick, soupy mixture, are called chyme.
At base of the stomach is a narrow opening controlled by a sphincter
(a circular muscle valve).
– When the sphincter relaxes, chyme enters duodenum; a neural
reflex causes the sphincter to contract closing off the opening.
– Duodenum is first part of the small intestine.
c. The sphincter relaxes and allows more chyme to enter
the duodenum.
d. The slow, rhythmic pace with which chyme exits the
stomach allows thorough digestion.
Human Digestive Tract
Small Intestine


Human small intestine is a coiled muscular tube
about three meters long.
Mucous membrane lining has ridges and furrows;
surfaces are covered by villi.
– Villi are finger-like projections whose surface cells are
covered by microvilli.
» Microvilli are minute projections, a brush border, of surface
cells of intestinal villi.
– Ridges, furrows, villi, and microvilli greatly increase
effective surface area of small intestine.

As chyme enters duodenum, proteins and
carbohydrates are partly digested; no fat digestion
occurs.
Human Digestive Tract
Small Intestine

Additional digestion is aided by secretions from
liver and pancreas.
– Bile is a secretion of liver temporarily stored in
gallbladder before sent to duodenum.
– Bile emulsifies fat; bile is a green byproduct of the
breakdown of hemoglobin.
– Bile contains bile salts that help in emulsification of fat.
» Emulsification breaks fat globules into microscopic droplets.
fat
Bile salts

fat droplets
» This increases fat digestion by increasing surface area of fat
globules exposed to enzymes.
Human Digestive Tract
Small Intestine

Pancreatic juice secreted by pancreas contains the following:
1) Sodium bicarbonate [NaCO3] that neutralizes acidity of chyme;
pH of small intestine is slightly basic;
2) Pancreatic amylase that digests starch to maltose;
–
pancreatic amylase
starch + H2O

maltose
3) trypsin and other enzymes that digest protein to peptides;
–
trypsin
protein + H2O  peptides
4) Lipase that digests fat droplets to glycerol and fatty acids.
–
lipase
fat droplets + H2O  glycerol + fatty acids
Human Digestive Tract
Small Intestine


Epithelial cells of villi produce intestinal enzymes
attached to plasma membrane of microvilli.
Intestinal secretions complete digestion of
peptides and sugars;
– peptides are digested by peptidases to amino acids;
peptidases
peptides + H2O

amino acids
– maltose from the first step in starch digestion is
converted by maltase to glucose;
maltase
maltose + H2O

glucose
Human Digestive Tract
Small Intestine

Absorption by Villi
1. Small intestine is specialized for absorption by the huge
number of villi that line the intestinal wall.
2. If a smooth tube, intestine would have to be 500-600 m
long to have a comparable surface area.
3. Each villus contains blood vessels and a lymphatic
lacteal.
4. Lacteal is lymphatic vessel in an intestinal villus that aids
in absorption of fats.
5. Sugars and amino acids enter villi cells and are absorbed
into bloodstream.
6. Glycerol and fatty acids enter villi cells; reassembled into
fat molecules, they move into lacteals.
7. Absorption involves diffusion and active transport
requiring expenditure of cellular energy.
Control of Digestive Juices




Gastrin is produced by cells in gastric glands of stomach
wall; stimulates gastric glands and increases gastric
motility; its secretion is stimulated by a meal rich in
protein.
Secretin is produced by cells in duodenal wall; stimulates
pancreas to secrete fluids rich in NaCO3 into duodenum;
secretion is stimulated by acid chyme.
Cholecystokinin (CCK) produced by duodenal wall
stimulates pancreas to increase pancreatic juice and liver to
increase output of bile; causes gallbladder to release bile;
secretion is stimulated by fats.
Gastric inhibitory peptide (GIP) from duodenal wall
inhibits gastric gland secretion and stomach motility.
Accessory Organs
Pancreas




Pancreas lies deep within abdominal cavity, just
below stomach, and rests on posterior abdominal
wall.
It is an elongated and somewhat flattened organ.
As an endocrine gland, it secretes glucogon and
insulin hormone into bloodstream.
As an exocrine gland, it secretes pancreatic juice.
1) Pancreatic juice contains sodium bicarbonate
that neutralizes acidic chyme.
2) Digestive enzymes digest carbohydrates, fats
and proteins.
Accessory Organs
Liver


Liver is a large glandular organ that fills the top of
abdominal cavity, just below diaphragm.
Liver has numerous functions:
1) It detoxifies blood by removing and
metabolizing poisonous substances.
2) It makes plasma proteins including albumin and
fibrinogen.
3) Liver destroys old red blood cells; converts
hemoglobin to bilirubin and biliverdin in bile.
4) It produces bile stored in gallbladder before
entering duodenum to emulsify fats.
Accessory Organs
Liver
5) It stores glucose as glycogen; breaks down glycogen to maintain
constant blood glucose concentration.
– Blood vessels from large and small intestines lead to liver as
hepatic portal vein.
– Liver maintains blood glucose level at 0.1% by removing
glucose from hepatic portal vein to store as glycogen; when
needed, glycogen is broken down and glucose enters hepatic
vein.
6)Liver produces urea from amino groups and ammonia.
– Amino acids can be converted to glucose but deamination
(removal of amino groups) must occur.
– Using complex metabolic pathway, liver converts amino
groups to urea.
– Urea is most common human nitrogenous waste it is
transported by blood to kidneys.
Large Intestine






Large intestine is region following the small intestine.
It has four parts: cecum, colon, rectum, and anal canal.
Appendix
– This is finger-like projection extending from cecum, a blind
sac at junction of small and large intestine.
– It may play a role in fighting infections.
– If infected appendix bursts, it results in general abdominal
infection (peritonitis).
4. 1.5 liters of water enter digestive tract daily from drinking;
another 8.5 liters enter from various secretions.
About 95% of this total liquid is reabsorbed by small intestine;
remainder by cells of colon.
If water is not reabsorbed, it causes diarrhea which can cause
serious dehydration and ion loss.
Large Intestine



Large intestine functions in ion regulation,
absorbing salts plus vitamin K produced by
intestinal bacteria.
Large intestine that terminates at the anus, an
external opening.
Feces
– Feces consists of 75% water and 25% solid matter.
– One-third of the solid matter is intestinal bacteria.
– Remainder is undigested wastes, fats, organic material,
mucus, and dead cells from intestinal lining.