Chapter 41

Animal Nutrition
 Dietary Categories of Animals
 Herbivores eat mainly autotrophs (plants
and algae)
 Carnivores eat other animals
 Omnivores regularly consume animals
as well as plants or algal matter
 Basic Nutritional Needs
 Regardless of what an animal eats, an adequate
diet must satisfy three nutritional needs
 Fuel for all cellular work
 The organic raw materials for biosynthesis
 Essential nutrients, substances such as vitamins
that the animal cannot make for itself
 Feeding Mechanisms
SUSPENSION FEEDERS SUBSTRATE FEEDERS

Feces

Caterpillar
Baleen

FLUID FEEDERS

BULK FEEDERS

Suspension feeders shift small particles from water

Substrate feeders live in or on their food source
Bulk feeders eat largish pieces of food
Fluid feeders …well that is pretty obvious
Bioenergetics - basics
 Energy Budget can be viewed as the flow of
food energy into and out of the animal
 ATP is the energy currency of life
 Nearly all of an animal’s ATP generation
 Is based on the oxidation of energy-rich
molecules: carbohydrates, proteins, and fats
Glucose Regulation as an Example
of Homeostasis
 Animals store excess calories as glycogen in
the liver and muscles and as fat
 When fewer calories are taken in than are
expended … fuel is taken out of storage and
oxidized
 Glucose is a major fuel for cells
 Its metabolism, regulated by hormone action,
is an example of homeostasis
Glucose Metabolism

1 When blood glucose

level rises, a gland called
the pancreas secretes insulin,
a hormone, into the blood.

2 Insulin enhances the

transport of glucose into body
cells and stimulates the liver
and muscle cells to store
glucose as glycogen. As a
STIMULUS: result, blood glucose level
Blood glucose drops.
level rises
after eating.

Homeostasis
Glucose
90mg/dl
4 Glucagon promotes
the breakdown of
glycogen in the
liver and the STIMULUS:
release of glucose Blood glucose
into the blood, level drops
increasing blood below set point. 3 When blood glucose
glucose level. level drops, the pancreas
secretes the hormone
glucagon, which opposes
the effect of insulin.
Caloric Imbalance
 Undernourishment
 Occurs in animals when their diets are chronically deficient
in calories

 Overnourishment
 Results from excessive food intake
 Leads to the storage of excess calories as fat
 Obesity contributes to a number of health problems,
including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and colon and
breast cancer
 Some Stats on US Obesity
 58 Million Overweight; 40 Million Obese; 3 Million morbidly Obese
 Eight out of 10 over 25's Overweight
 78% of American's not meeting basic activity level recommendations

25% completely Sedentary

76% increase in Type II diabetes in adults 30-40 yrs old since 1990
Regulation of Body Weight
Hormones and appetite
 Several hormones regulate both long-term and short-term
appetite by affecting a “satiety center” in the brain

Secreted by the stomach

wall, ghrelin is one of the
signals that triggers feelings
of hunger as mealtimes
approach. In dieters who lose
weight, ghrelin levels increase,
Produced by adipose (fat) which may be one reason
tissue, leptin suppresses it’s so hard to stay on a diet.
appetite as its level increases.
When body fat decreases,
leptin levels fall, and appetite
increases.

Ghrelin

Insulin A rise in blood sugar level

The hormone PYY, Leptin
secreted by the small after a meal stimulates
PYY the pancreas to secrete
intestine after meals,
acts as an appetite insulin
suppressant that In addition to its other
counters the appetite functions, insulin suppresses
stimulant ghrelin. appetite by acting on the brain.
Role of Leptin
 Mice that inherit a defect in the gene for leptin
become very obese
Obesity and Evolution
 The problem of
maintaining weight may
partly stem from our
evolutionary past when
fat hoarding was a
means of survival
 What’s in the Diet
 An animal’s diet must supply
 Fuel (energy)

 Carbon skeletons
 To build the complex molecules it needs to grow, maintain itself, and
reproduce an animal must obtain organic precursors (carbon skeletons) from
its food

 Essential nutrients
 Supplied in preassembled form
 An animal that is malnourished is missing one or more essential nutrients in

its diet
 Malnutrition is much more common than undernutrition in human populations
Mineral deficiencies
 Herbivorous animals may suffer mineral deficiencies
if they graze on plants in soil lacking key minerals
 Essential Amino Acids
 Animals require 20 amino acids
 They can synthesize about half of them from the
other molecules they obtain from their diet
 The remaining amino acids, the essential amino
acids, must be obtained from food in preassembled
form
Protein Deficiency
 A diet that provides insufficient amounts of
one or more essential amino acids causes a
form of malnutrition called protein deficiency

Kwashiorkor- enough calories but

protein is very deficient
 Essential Amino Acids
 Complete proteins provide all essential AAs
in their proper proportions
 Incomplete proteins do not
 Most plant proteins are incomplete in amino acid makeup
 So individuals who must eat only plant proteins need to eat a
variety to ensure that they get all the essential amino acids
Essential amino acids for adults
Together corn and beans Beans
Methionine
and other
would provide all 8 of the
Valine legumes
essential amino acids for
humans Threonine
Phenylalanine

Corn (maize) Leucine

and other grains Isoleucine
Tryptophan
Lysine
 Some animals have adaptations that help them through periods
when their bodies demand extraordinary amounts of protein
 Penguins use their muscle protein as an AA source for building
new proteins when their replace feathers after molting
Essential Fatty Acids
 Animals can synthesize most of the fatty
acids they need
 The essential fatty acids are certain
unsaturated fatty acids (linoleic acid in
humans)
 Deficiencies in fatty acids are rare
Vitamins
 Vitamins are organic molecules required in
the diet in small amounts
 13 vitamins essential to humans have been
identified
 Vitamins are grouped into two categories
 Fat-soluble (A, D, E, and K)
 Water-soluble
Minerals
 Minerals are simple inorganic nutrients usually
required in small amounts
Food Processing
 The main stages of food processing
 Ingestion: Intake of food
 Digestion: Process of breaking food down
into molecules small enough to absorb

Involves enzymatic hydrolysis of polymers into
their monomers
 Absorption: The uptake of nutrients by body
cells
 Elimination: occurs as undigested material
passes out of the digestive compartment
 Food Processing
 The four stages Small
of food processing
molecules

Pieces
of food

Chemical digestion Nutrient

Mechanical (enzymatic hydrolysis) molecules
digestion enter body
cells

Undigested
Food
material

1 INGESTION 2 DIGESTION 3 ABSORPTION 4 ELIMINATION

Digestive Compartments
 Most animals process food in specialized compartments
 Intracellular digestion
 Food particles are engulfed by endocytosis and digested within food vacuoles

 Extracellular digestion
 Is the breakdown of food particles outside cells
 Gastrovascular Cavity
 Animals with simple body plans have a gastrovascular cavity
that functions in both digestion and distribution of nutrients
Tentacles

Mouth
Food

Gastrovascular
cavity
Epidermis
Mesenchyme
Gastrodermis

Nutritive
muscular
cells

Flagella
Gland cells

Food vacuoles
Hydra (a cnidarian) Mesenchyme
 Digestive Tube
 Animals with a more complex body plan
 Have a digestive tube with two openings, a mouth
and an anus
 This digestive tube is called a complete digestive
tract or an alimentary canal
Organization of Digestive Tube
 The digestive tube can be organized into specialized regions
that carry out digestion and nutrient absorption in a stepwise
fashion
Pharynx
Earthworm. The digestive tract of Esophagus Crop
Gizzard
Esophagus
an earthworm includes a muscular Intestine
pharynx that sucks food in through the Pharynx Crop
mouth. Food passes through the Anus
esophagus and is stored and moistened
Mouth Gizzard
in the crop. The muscular gizzard, which
contains small bits of sand and gravel, Intestine
pulverizes the food. Digestion and
absorption occur in the intestine,
which has a dorsal fold, the typhlosole, Typhlosole
that increases the surface area for
nutrient absorption.
Lumen of intestine
Esophagus
Grasshopper. A grasshopper has several Foregut Midgut Hindgut
Crop
digestive chambers grouped into three Esophagus
Rectum
main regions: a foregut, with an esophagus
and crop; a midgut; and a hindgut. Food is
Midgut
Anus
moistened and stored in the crop, but most
digestion occurs in the midgut. Gastric ceca,
Mouth Hindgut
pouches extending from the midgut,
absorb nutrients. Crop
Gastric ceca

Esophagus

Bird. Many birds have three separate chambers— Mouth

Gizzard
the crop, stomach, and gizzard—where food is Intestine
pulverized and churned before passing into the
Esophagus
intestine. A bird’s crop and gizzard function very Crop
much like those of an earthworm. In most birds, Crop
chemical digestion and absorption of nutrients
occur in the intestine. Stomach
Anus Stomach
Gizzard
Intestine
Mammalian Digestive System

A Tour of the Tube

 Overview of the System
Tongue Cardiac Salivary
orifice glands
Oral cavity
Parotid gland Mouth
Salivary
Sublingual gland
glands Pharynx
Submandibular gland Esophagus
Esophagus

Pyloric
sphincter
Liver Stomach Gall-
bladder
Stomach

Ascending Gall-
portion of bladder
large intestine Small
Liver intestines
Pancreas
Pancreas
IIeum
of small Small intestine Large
intestine Duodenum of intestines
small intestine
Rectum
Large intestine Anus

Rectum A schematic diagram of

the human digestive system

Appendix
Anus

Cecum

Food is pushed along the digestive tract by peristalsis … Rhythmic

waves of contraction of smooth muscles in the wall of the canal
The Oral Cavity, Pharynx, and
Esophagus
 Oral cavity
 Food is lubricated and digestion begins
 Teeth chew food into smaller particles that are exposed to
salivary amylase, initiating the breakdown of starch
 Tongue forms the food bolus and pushes it to the pharynx

 Pharynx (throat)
 The common passage way for air and ingesta
 Esophagus
 Conducts food from the pharynx down to the stomach by
peristalsis
 From Mouth to Stomach
4 The esophageal
sphincter relaxes,
allowing the
bolus to enter the
Epiglottis
esophagus.
Bolus of food up

Tongue Glottis
Epiglottis
up down
Pharynx and open
Esophageal Esophageal
Glottis Epiglottis sphincter Esophageal
sphincter
Larynx down relaxed 5 After the food sphincter
contracted
has entered the contracted
Trachea Esophagus esophagus, the
larynx moves Relaxed
To lungs To stomach Glottis up downward and muscles
opens the
and closed breathing Contracted
passage. muscles
3 The larynx, the
1 When a person is not upper part of the
swallowing, the esophageal 6 Waves of muscular Relaxed
respiratory tract,
sphincter muscle is contracted, moves upward and contraction muscles
2 The swallowing
the epiglottis is up, and the tips the epiglottis (peristalsis)
reflex is triggered
glottis is open, allowing air over the glottis, move the bolus
when a bolus of
to flow through the trachea preventing food down the esophagus
food reaches the
to the lungs. from entering the to the stomach.
pharynx.
trachea.

Stomach
 GERD
 Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)
 Better known as heartburn
 The Stomach
 Stomach
 Stores food
 Secretes gastric juice, which converts a meal to acid chyme

 Gastric juice
 Hydrochloric acid
 Pepsin (enzyme)
 Mucus (which coated the stomach lining and protects the
cells from acidity
Stomach structure
Gastric gland
 Goblet (mucus) cells
Esophagus
 Chief cells Cardiac orifice

 pepsinogen Stomach

 Parietal cells Pyloric

sphincter
5 µm

Small
 HCl intestine Folds of
epithelial
Interior surface of stomach. tissue
The interior surface of the
stomach wall is highly folded
and dotted with pits leading Epithelium 3
into tubular gastric glands. 1 Pepsinogen and HCI
are secreted into the
Pepsinogen Pepsin (active enzyme)
Gastric gland. The gastric 2 lumen of the stomach.
glands have three types of cells HCl
that secrete different components
1
of the gastric juice: mucus cells,
2 HCl converts
chief cells, and parietal cells.
pepsinogen to pepsin.
Mucus cells secrete mucus,
which lubricates and protects 3 Pepsin then activates
the cells lining the stomach. more pepsinogen,
starting a chain
Chief cells secrete pepsino- reaction. Pepsin
gen, an inactive form of the begins the chemical
digestive enzyme pepsin. digestion of proteins.
Parietal cell
Parietal cells secrete Chief cell
hydrochloric acid (HCl).
Gastric Ulcers
 Caused mainly by the bacterium Helicobacter
pylori

Bacteria

Mucus
layer of
stomach
1 µm
The Small Intestine
 Small intestine
 Longest section of the alimentary canal (six
meters in humans)
 The major organ of digestion and absorption
 Sections

Duodenum

Jejunum

Ileum
 Enzymatic Action in the Small
Intestine
 In the duodenum acid chyme from the stomach mixes
with digestive juices from the pancreas, liver,
gallbladder, and intestine itself

Pancreatic enzymes
Liver Bile Trypsin and
Chymotrypsisn
Gall- Lipases
bladder

Amylase
Stomach
Nucleases
Bile salts aid in Acid chyme
the digestion and Intestinal
juice
absorption of
lipids via The intestinal brush
Pancreatic juice
Emulsification border produces a variety
Pancreas
Duodenum of of enzymes that contribute
small intestine to digestion
Enzymatic digestion
Carbohydrate digestion Protein digestion Nucleic acid digestion Fat digestion

Oral cavity, Polysaccharides Disaccharides

pharynx, (starch, glycogen) (sucrose, lactose)
esophagus
Salivary amylase

Smaller polysaccharides,
maltose

Stomach
Proteins

Pepsin

Small polypeptides

Lumen of Polysaccharides Polypeptides DNA, RNA Fat globules (Insoluble in

small intes- water, fats aggregate as
tine Pancreatic amylases globules.)
Pancreatic trypsin and Pancreatic
chymotrypsin (These proteases nucleases
Bile salts
cleave bonds adjacent to certain
Maltose and other
amino acids.)
disaccharides
Fat droplets (A coating of
bile salts prevents small drop-
Nucleotides
Smaller lets from coalescing into
polypeptides larger globules, increasing
exposure to lipase.)

Pancreatic carboxypeptidase
Pancreatic lipase

Amino acids
Glycerol, fatty
acids, glycerides

Small peptides Nucleotidases

Epithelium
of small
intestine
Nucleosides
(brush Disaccharidases Dipeptidases, carboxypeptidase, and aminopeptidase
border) (These proteases split Nucleosidases
off one amino acid at a time, working from opposite and
ends of a polypeptide.) phosphatases

Monosaccharides Nitrogenous bases,

Amino acids
sugars, phosphates
 Hormonal Regulation of Digestion
 Hormones help coordinate the secretion of digestive juices into
the alimentary canal

Enterogastrone secreted by
Liver the duodenum inhibits peristalsis
and acid secretion by the stomach,
thereby slowing digestion when
Entero- acid chyme rich in fats enters the
gastrone duodenum.
Gall-
bladder
Gastrin Gastrin from the stomach
CCK recirculates via the bloodstream
Stomach
back to the stomach, where it
Amino acids or fatty acids in the stimulates the production
duodenum trigger the release of Pancreas of gastric juices.
cholecystokinin (CCK),
which stimulates the release of Secretin
digestive enzymes from the pancreas Duodenum
Secreted by the duodenum,
and bile from the gallbladder.
CCK secretin stimulates the pancreas
Key to release sodium bicarbonate,
which neutralizes acid chyme
Stimulation from the stomach.
Inhibition
 Small Intestine…Absorption of
Nutrients
 The small intestine has a huge surface area
due to the presence of villi and microvilli
Microvilli
Vein carrying blood to (brush border)
hepatic portal vessel

Blood
capillaries

Epithelial
cells
Muscle layers
Epithelial cells
Large
circular Lacteal
Villi
folds

Key Lymph
Villi vessel
Nutrient Intestinal wall
absorption

The absorptive surface area of the small intestine is roughly 250 square meters - the size of a tennis court!
Absorption of Nutrients
 The core of each villus
 Contains a network of blood vessels and a small vessel
of the lymphatic system called a lacteal
 Amino acids and sugars
 Pass through the epithelium of the small intestine and
enter the bloodstream
 After glycerol and fatty acids are absorbed by epithelial
cells
 They are recombined into fats within these cells
Fat absorption
 These fats are then mixed with cholesterol and
coated with proteins forming small molecules called
chylomicrons, which are transported into lacteals
Fat globule

Bile salts 1 Large fat globules are

emulsified by bile salts
in the duodenum.

Fat droplets 2 Digestion of fat by the pancreatic

coated with enzyme lipase yields free fatty
bile salts acids and monoglycerides, which
Micelles made then form micelles.
up of fatty acids,
monoglycerides,
and bile salts 3 Fatty acids and mono-
glycerides leave micelles
and enter epithelial cells
by diffusion.

4 Chylomicrons containing fatty

Epithelial substances are transported out
cells of of the epithelial cells and into
small Lacteal lacteals, where they are carried
intestine away from the intestine by lymph.
The Large Intestine
 Functions
 Recover water that has entered the alimentary canal
 Form compact and propel the feces to the anus
 The colon is home to a variety of bacteria including
Escherichia coli
Adaptations of the Mammalian
Digestive System
Variations in Dentition
 Mammals have specialized dentition that best enables them to
ingest their usual diet Pointed incisor and canines.
Jagged premolars and molars
Incisors

Canines Molars

(a) Carnivore Premolars

Broad ridged surfaces for

grinding
Reduced/absent canines
Chisel shaped incisors
(b) Herbivore

Generalized/unspecialized
dentition

(c) Omnivore
Stomach and Intestinal Adaptations
 Herbivores generally have longer alimentary canals
than carnivores reflecting the longer time needed to
digest vegetation

Snakes can
“unhinge”
Small intestine
Stomach
their jaws
Small
intestine Many large
carnivores
Cecum have large
very
expandable
Colon
stomachs
(large
intestine)

Carnivore Herbivore
Symbiotic Adaptations
 Many herbivorous animals have fermentation
chambers where symbiotic microorganisms
digest cellulose.
 Horses, rabbits, and koalas have very large cecums
housing symbionts
 Ruminants have large populations of symbiotic
prokaryotes and protozoa in their rumens and
reticulums
Ruminant Digestion
1
Rumen . When the cow first chews and
swallows a mouthful of grass, boluses
(green arrows) enter the rumen.

Intestine
Reticulum . Some boluses
also enter the reticulum. In
both the rumen and the
reticulum, symbiotic prokaryotes
and protists (mainly ciliates) go
to work on the cellulose-rich
meal. As by-products of their
metabolism, the microorganisms
secrete fatty acids. The cow
periodically regurgitates and
rechews the cud (red arrows),
which further breaks down the
fibers, making them more
accessible to further microbial action.

Esophagus

4
Abomasum . The cud, containing great numbers of microorganisms, 3
Omasum . The cow then reswallows
finally passes to the abomasum for digestion by the cow‘s own the cud (blue arrows), which moves to
enzymes (black arrows). the omasum, where water is removed.