Animal

Nutrition
GBIO 80: General Physiology
Laboratory
Instructor: John Paul Macaraig
Credits: Najeen Rula
 Timeframe: 1 week

This module contains the

lecture on animal nutrition.
About this Students will go through the
presentation and videos to
module learn and understand how
animals obtain food, the
importance of digestion, and
the mechanisms involved in
digestion. Some comparative
notes on other organisms are
also included.
By the end of the module, you should be
able to
• Identify mechanisms for obtaining food (i.e. for different
animals)
• Describe how materials move through the digestive system
• Discuss the digestive tract structure and function
Overview of
animal
nutrition
 Food provides the raw materials
that animals, including people,
need to
• build tissue and
Animal • fuel cellular work
Nutrition
Body needs to break down food
(which is large and complex) to
smaller molecules that can be
absorbed by the body.
Nutrition processes
1. Ingestion is the act of eating
2. Digestion is the process of breaking food down into
molecules small enough to be absorbed
Mechanical digestion, including chewing, increases the
surface area of food
Chemical digestion splits food into small molecules that can
pass through membranes; these are used to build larger
molecules. Happens via hydrolysis, chemical reactions that
break down large molecules by the addition of water
molecules.
Nutrition processes
3. Absorption is uptake of nutrients by body cells
4. Elimination is the passage of undigested material out of the
digestive system
 Nutrient molecules
enter body cells
Mechanical
digestion Chemical
digestion
(enzymatic Undigested
hydrolysis)
material

1 Ingestion 2 Digestion 3 Absorption 4 Elimination

8
Thru mechanical and chemical
digestion….
The four main macromolecules in food: nucleic acids, proteins,
fats, and carbohydrates.

Are broken down into smaller molecules of nucleotides, amino

acids, fatty acids and glycerol, and simple sugars.

and absorbed by the body

*Important minerals, vitamins, and water are also extracted from

food during the process of digestion.
Digestive
compartments
in different
animals
Digestive compartments

Animals need compartments

where they can digest food
without digesting their own
cells and tissues

11
Digestive compartments
• For protists and some animals (like sponges),
digestion occurs through phagocytosis

• The cell engulfs the food and forms a food vacuole

(meaning, no digestive compartment)

• The food vacuole is fused with organelles with

digestive enzymes

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Digestive compartments
• Most animals use a digestive compartment to process
food.

• Such compartments allow animals to digest pieces of

food that are much larger than a single cell.

• Gastrovascular cavities are digestive compartments

surrounded by cells and have only a single opening.

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Digestive compartments
• Gastrovascular cavities are digestive compartments
surrounded by cells and have only a single opening.

• for both the entrance for food and the exit of undigested
wastes

• Simpler animals, including cnidarians (hydras and jellies)

and flatworms

14
Figure 22.4a
Gastrovascular Cavity
(compartment with single opening)
Single
opening

Food
(water flea)

Gastrovascular
cavity

Hydra
Digestive compartments
• Many animals, including earthworms and humans, have a
digestive tube with two separate openings – a mouth at
one end and an anus at the other.

• This is called digestive tract or alimentary canal

• Food moves through specialized regions that digest and

absorb nutrients in a step-wise fashion

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Figure 22.4b

Alimentary Canal (Digestive Tract)

(tube from mouth to anus)
Mouth

Anus

Intestine

Interior of
intestine
Earthworm
Human
digestion
A quick tour of the human digestive
system
• The human digestive system consists of a digestive
tube, the alimentary canal (or gut)

• Mouth > pharynx > esophagus > stomach > small

intestine > large intestine > rectum > anus

• Accessory organs that secrete digestive chemicals.

• Salivary glands, pancreas, liver, gall bladder.

19
 Figure 22.5

ACCESSORY ORGANS ALIMENTARY CANAL

Oral cavity (mouth)
Tongue
Pharynx

Salivary glands

Esophagus

Liver
Gallbladder Stomach
Pancreas

Small intestine
Colon of large intestine
Appendix
Rectum
Anus
Human digestion
The Oral Cavity

• Salivary glands deliver saliva to

lubricate food
• Teeth chew food into smaller
particles that are exposed to salivary
amylase, initiating breakdown of
glucose polymers
• The tongue shapes food into a bolus
and provides help with swallowing

21
• The pharynx (throat)
• Intersection of the
pathways for
swallowing and
breathing
• connects the mouth to
the esophagus and
• opens to the larynx,
which leads to the
trachea and lungs.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

The swallowing reflex
Trachea pushed or moves
upward and tips the
epiglottis to close the
trachea entrance.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

The esophagus
A muscular tube, connects the
pharynx to the stomach, and
moves food down by peristalsis,
alternating waves of muscular
contraction and relaxation.

Peristalsis moves the food along

all the way from the esophagus
to the anus.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

The stomach
• The stomach stores food and secretes
gastric juice
• Gastric juice has the following components

HCl – low pH of about 1 to 2 which kill many

bacteria taken in with the food. It provides the
acidity needed to keep the pepsin enzyme
working.

Pepsin - a protease, or protein-digesting

enzyme, that cleaves proteins into smaller
peptides

Mucin- coats the stomach, protecting it from

the effects of the acid and pepsin
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The Stomach

• It takes 2 – 6 hours for the stomach to empty after a meal, long

enough for stomach acids and pepsin to begin digestion.

• What keeps the stomach from digesting itself?

• Mucus coating the stomach lining helps protect it
• Timing is also a factor: Nerve and hormone signals regulate
secretion of gastric juice so that it is discharged only when food is in
the stomach.
• The stomach replaces its lining once every three days.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

The small intestine
Digestion in the small
intestine
• The small intestine is
the longest section of
the alimentary canal.
• It is divided into:
• Duodenum
• Jejenum
• Ileum

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The small intestine

• The small intestine has a

huge surface area, due to
villi and microvilli that are
exposed to the intestinal
lumen
• The enormous microvillar
surface greatly increases the
rate of nutrient absorption
• Transport across the
epithelial cells can be
passive or active depending
on the nutrient
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© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.
 The small intestine
• It is the major organ of
digestion and absorption

• The first portion of the

small intestine is the
duodenum, where
chyme from the stomach
mixes with digestive
juices from the (1)
pancreas, (2) liver and
gallbladder, and the (3)
small intestine itself
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The pancreas
is a large gland that secretes
pancreatic juice

pancreatic juice contains

bicarbonate to neutralize the acid
from the stomach
Pancreatic juice also has
pancreatic amylase, lipase,
protease and nuclease

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

 The liver and gall
bladder

• Bile is produced by the

liver and stored and
secreted from the
gallbladder

• Secreted through duct

into the duodenum
• Contains salts that
break up fats into small
droplets

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

The small intestine
• In the duodenum, nutrients are
• completely digested and ready to be absorbed.

• Most digestion is complete by the time the food

reaches the end of the duodenum.

• The next several meters of the small intestine

are specialized for absorption.
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc.
 The Large Intestine
• The large intestine is
• shorter, but wider, than the small
intestine and
• about 1.5 meters in length.
• At the junction of the small and
large intestine is a small, finger-
like extension called the
appendix.
• Acts as a "safe house" for the
beneficial bacteria living in the
human gut

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

 The Large Intestine

• The colon (large intestine)

•Main function is to absorb remaining water
• The small intestine absorbs much of the water and the colon
finishes the job
•As water is absorbed, undigested material becomes more solid
as moved along by peristalsis

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

The Large Intestine

•The end product of

undigested materials is an
end-product called feces.

•Feces also contains

enormous numbers of
intestinal bacteria, normal
inhabitants of the colon.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

• The rectum
• forms the last 15 cm (6
inches) of the large
intestine and
• stores feces until
elimination.

• The anus
• consists of two
sphincters smooth and
skeletal muscle and
• regulates the opening of
the rectum.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc.

Figure 22.14a

Colon of
large
intestine

Small
intestine

Rectum

Anus
Figure 22.14b

Sphincter
End
of small
intestine

Nutrient
flow
Appendix
Figure 22.15-4
Ingestion
Food into mouth
Mouth

Digestion
Mechanical digestion Food
Chewing in mouth
Churning in stomach

Chemical digestion
Saliva in mouth
Acid and pepsin in
stomach Stomach
Enzymes in small
intestine

Absorption
Nutrients and water Small
in small intestine intestine

Water in large
intestine

Elimination Large
Feces formed in intestine
large intestine
Anus
Elimination from anus
Feces
Figure 22.UN04

Alimentary Accessory Digestion

Absorption
canal organs
Mechanical Chemical

Mouth Salivary
Salivary glands Chewing
(oral cavity) amylase

Pharynx and
esophagus

Acid and
Stomach Churning pepsin (in
gastric juice)
Liver, Other Nutrients
Small
gallbladder, enzymes and water
intestine
pancreas

Large Water
intestine

Anus
 Gastric amylase
(minor digestion only of
polysaccharides to
disaccharides)

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References
Campbell Essential Biology Pearson Education, Inc. 2011
Campbell Essential Biology Pearson Education, Inc. 2013
Eckert Animal Physiology