Digestive

System

Joshua Evans M. Bajao, M.Sc.

Digestive System
• Animals can only obtain energy and nutrition
through the consumption of other organisms
• However, these nutrients and macromolecules
from the ingested food are not immediately
accessible to the cells in the body.
• Digestive System – group of organs that breaks
down the food that we, eat so that our body
(somatic cells) can use it.
• Herbivores, Carnivores, and Omnivores
Digestive System
Most animal digestion is extracellular and
involves four tasks
• Ingestion: taking food into digestive chamber
• Mechanical and chemical digestion: breaking
down food into smaller components
• Absorption: movement of nutrient molecules
from digestive chamber to the internal
environment
• Elimination: expelling leftover material that
was not digested and absorbed
Digestive System
How did the Digestive System evolved?
Digestive System
Incomplete Digestive System
• Primary organ of digestion for flatworms
and Cnidarians (jellyfishes and corrals)
• Gastrovascular cavity/tract
• A very simple blind tube or cavity with
only one opening
• The mouth and the anus is the same
• Cells within the cavity secrete digestive
enzymes to breakdown the food
Digestive System
Complete Digestive System
• The presence of the alimentary canal
• A tubular gut with two openings
• Food is ingested from the mouth,
passes through different parts of
digestive system, then lastly,
excreted through the anus
• Most invertebrates and all vertebrate
• Types: Monogastric, Avian, and
Ruminant
Digestive System
Complete Digestive System
• The presence of the alimentary canal
• A tubular gut with two openings
• Food is ingested from the mouth,
passes through different parts of
digestive system, then lastly,
excreted through the anus
• Most invertebrates and all vertebrate
• Types: Monogastric, Avian, and
Ruminant
Complete Digestive System
Monogastric Digestive System
• A digestive system that has one
stomach
• Stomach – an organ of the
digestive system whose main
function is to breakdown most of
the food into simpler molecules
• Most of the animals have a
monogastric digestive system
Complete Digestive System
Monogastric Digestive System
• A digestive system that has one
stomach
• Stomach – an organ of the
digestive system whose main
function is to breakdown most of
the food into simpler molecules
• Most of the animals have a
monogastric digestive system
Monogastric Digestive System
Buccal Cavity
• Mechanical digestion begins at this
cavity, when the teeth rip and crush food
• Movements of the tongue help mix food
with saliva secreted by salivary glands
(exocrine glands in the mouth)
• The enzyme salivary amylase begins the
process of chemical digestion of
carbohydrates
Monogastric Digestive System
Buccal Cavity
• Food is forced into the pharynx (throat)
by swallowing
• Epiglottis blocks food from entering airways
• Food then enters the esophagus: tube
between the pharynx and the stomach
• Peristalsis: smooth muscle contraction that
propels food to stomach and beyond
• Valves called sphincters regulate the
movement of material between sections
Monogastric Digestive System
Stomach
• stretchable sac that stores food,
secretes acid, and digestive enzymes
• Functions:
1. Food storage
2. Controls the rate of passage to the
small intestine
3. Mechanical and Chemical Digestion
• Gastric juices contains digestive
enzymes, acid, and mucus
Monogastric Digestive System
Monogastric Digestive System
Stomach: Gastric juice
• Hydrochloric Acid (HCl)
• disrupts the extracellular matrix that binds
cells together in meat and plant material
• Causing the stomach to have a pH of 1.5-4
• Pepsin
• an enzyme that breaks peptide bonds
cleaving proteins into smaller polypeptides
• Chyme – an acidic fluid in the stomach
that consists of gastric juices and partly
digested food
Monogastric Digestive System
Small Intestine
• An organ where the digestion of
proteins, carbohydrate, and (the
emulsification of) fats
• Three Main parts:
1. Duodenum
2. Jejunum
3. Ileum
Monogastric Digestive System
Small Intestine
1. Duodenum
• chyme from the stomach mixes with
digestive juices from the pancreas, liver,
gallbladder, and the small intestine itself
• The pancreas produces the proteases
trypsin and chymotrypsin, which are
activated in the lumen of the duodenum
2. Jejunum
3. Ileum
Monogastric Digestive System
Small Intestine
• Fats are difficult to digest due to their
hydrophobic nature. In most vertebrates,
fat digestion is facilitated by bile salts.
• These are emulsifiers, breaking apart the
fat and lipid globules
• Secreted by the liver and stored and
concentrated in the gall bladder
Monogastric Digestive System
Small Intestine
• The small intestine has a huge surface
area due to villi and microvilli that are
exposed to the intestinal lumen
• The enormous microvilli surface creates
a brush border that greatly increases the
rate of nutrient absorption
• Transport across the epithelial cells
can be passive or active, depending
on the nutrient
Monogastric Digestive System
Monogastric Digestive System
Small Intestine
• The capillaries and veins that carry
nutrient-rich blood away from the villi
converge into the hepatic portal vein
• a blood vessel that leads directly to the liver
• From the liver, blood travels to the heart
and then to other tissues and organs
• The liver converts many organic nutrients in
the blood to different forms and removes
toxic substances
Monogastric Digestive System
Small Intestine
• Fat digestion take a different path
• Hydrolysis of a fat by lipase in the
small intestine generates fatty acids and
a monoglyceride
• This will be absorbed by epithelial cells
and recombined to triglycerides
• They are then coated with different
substances, forming the chylomicrons
Monogastric Digestive
System
Chemical Digestion: Summary
Monogastric Digestive System
Large Intestine
• Also called as the Colon
• Indigestible material, dead bacteria and
mucosal cells, inorganic substances, and
some water moves into this structure
• As wastes travel through the large intestine,
they become compacted as feces
• The first part of the large intestine is a cup-
shaped pouch called the cecum
Monogastric Digestive System
Large Intestine
• Cecum
• Fermenting ingested material
• In herbivores, the cecum is a very
long tube containing many bacteria
that help breakdown cellulose
• In humans as well as many other
mammals, the cecum is short
• Appendix
• reservoir for symbiotic microbes
Monogastric Digestive System
Large Intestine: Function
• Three parts
1. Ascending
2. Transverse
3. Descending
• Peristalsis moves material through colon
• Rectum
• Final/terminal portion of the colon that stores
the feces (undigested waste)
• Stretching of rectum triggers defecation reflex
Monogastric Digestive
System
Avian Digestive System
• Because of the lack of teeth, many
birds break their food into small
pieces before eating
• Still, this is not enough to efficiently
digest the food that these animals eat
• Thus, their digestive system is
modified in a way to mitigate this
problem
Avian Digestive System
• The food enter the mouth, travels to
the esophagus, and is stored at the crop
• Enlarged esophagus that serves as a
muscular pouch
• The stored food enters the bird’s
stomach, the proventriculus
• Food from the proventriculus enters
gizzard, a muscular organ that grinds
the semi-digested food
• Ingested stones can be seen here
Ruminant Digestive System
• Ruminants – are mammals that acquire their
energy via the digestion of plant materials
using a specialized (set of) stomach
• Roughages – food high in fiber, low in energy,
50-60% indigestible
• They also use microbial action to properly
ferment the cellulose
• Composed of four stomach
• Rumen, Reticulum, Omasum, Abomasum
Ruminant Digestive System
Ruminant Digestive System
• Rumen
• Largest section
• Solid roughages are mixed
with partially digested food
• Contains millions of bacteria
and other microbes for
fermentation
• Reticulum
• Traps foreign object
Ruminant Digestive System
• Regurgitation
• the act of bringing back
swallowed food unto the mouth
• Omasum
• Produces a grinding action
removing some of the water
from the food
• Abomasum
• Functions like a regular stomach
Mutualistic Adaptation
• There is a mutualistic symbiosis between
humans (animals) and bacteria in the
Gastrointestinal (GI) tract
• 10-100 trillion bacteria live in the human
• These bacteria can produce vitamins and
regulate the development of intestinal
epithelium
• Microbiome – the collection of
microorganisms living on the body
Mutualistic Adaptation
Mutualistic Adaptation
• Helicobacter pylori disrupts the
stomach health, which leads to
(stomach) ulcers
• Ulcers – open sores
• H. pylori led to the near-
complete elimination of the
stomach’s normal flora
Feedback Regulation
• The processes that enable an
animal to obtain nutrients are
matched to the organism’s
circumstances and need for
energy
Feedback Regulation
• The processes that enable an
animal to obtain nutrients are
matched to the organism’s
circumstances and need for
energy
Feedback Regulation
Hormones regulate appetite by affecting a
“satiety center” in the brain
• Ghrelin, a hormone secreted by the stomach wall,
triggers feelings of hunger before meals
• Insulin and PYY, a hormone secreted by the
small intestine after meals, both suppress appetite
• Leptin, produced by adipose (fat) tissue, also
suppresses appetite and plays a role in regulating
body fat levels