Compare and Contrast Process in Plants and Animals: Nutrient Procurement and

Processing

Nutrition of Plants and Animals

All organisms need energy to perform various life processes. Energy is necessary
because it allows organisms to move, respire, and digest, to name a few body
processes. Nutrition is the process of providing or obtaining food necessary for
health, survival, and growth of an organism. Nutrients refers to any substance
required for the growth and maintenance of an organism. Organisms have
different modes of nutrition. Thus, they can be classified based on how they
obtain food:
A. Autotrophs –Autotrophic organisms can manufacture their own nutrients by
synthesizing inorganic materials. Depending on the energy source, autotrophs are
of two types.
i. Photoautotrophic - Photoautotrophic organisms directly use the energy from
the sun and other inorganic substances such as carbon dioxide and water to form
organic food. All photoautotrophs have chlorophyll and other equivalent pigments
that allow them to capture light energy. Examples are plants and some forms of
bacteria and protists.
ii. Chemoautotrophic - They use chemicals to create simpler organic substances
important for their survival. Such organisms are called chemoautotrophs. Most
bacteria and members of the group Archaea that live in extreme environments
such as volcanoes and deep-sea vents are classified in this group. Common
inorganic substances synthesized by the chemoautotrophs include hydrogen
sulphide, sulfur, and ammonia.
B. Heterotrophs – organisms that cannot make their own food and obtain their
energy from other organisms. Ex.: animals, fungi. Listed below are different types
of heterotrophic plants that are mainly classified based on their mode of
nutrition:
i. Parasitic Nutrition- They depend on other plants and animals for nutrition.
Parasitic organisms, or parasites, live on or inside other living organisms, called
hosts, and obtain their food from them. The host does not get any benefit from
the parasite (ex. tapeworms, leeches). Ectoparasitism is the type of parasitism
happens when the parasite is outside the body of the host (ex. fleas in dogs and
head lice. Endoparasitism is a type of parasitism involves parasites that live inside
the body of the host. Some endoparasites include roundworms and hookworms
and negatively affect the health of humans.

ii. Insectivorous Nutrition- Some plants have special structural features that help
them to trap insects and are commonly known as carnivorous or heterotrophic
plants. These plants digest the insects by secreting digestive juices and absorb the
nutrients from them. These plants grow on the soil that lacks minerals. Examples
are Pitcher plant, Venus flytrap.

iii. Saprophytic Nutrition- Saprophytic plants derive nutrition from dead and
decaying plants and animals. They dissolve the dead and decaying matter by
secreting digestive juices and absorb the nutrients. Common examples of
saprophytes are fungi (molds, mushrooms, yeasts) and many bacteria.

iv. Holozoic- Organisms ingest solid or liquid food that is then digested and
absorbed by the body. This type of nutrition is subdivided based on the type of
organic matter ingested. i. Herbivorous- Organisms that take in only plants as
source of their energy. Ex. sheep, rabbits, and cows

ii. Carnivorous- Organisms that eat other animals are called carnivores. Ex. lions,
tigers, and sharks

iii. Omnivorous- Organisms that take both plants and animals are called
omnivores. Ex. pigs, hens, and bears

Animals get their food from plants, either directly by eating plants or indirectly by
eating animals that eat plants. Some animals eat both plants and animals. Animal
nutrition includes nutrient requirement, mode of intake of food and its utilization
in the body). Animals have the following nutritional requirements: carbohydrates
that serve as a major energy source, proteins that can also be used as an energy
source and fats which are used to build cell membranes, steroid hormones, and
other cellular structures. Essential nutrients include substances that animals can
only get from the foods they eat because they could not be synthesized inside the
body. These include: 20 amino acids, 8 could not be synthesized by humans; fatty
acids which are used for making special membrane lipids; vitamins that are
organic molecules required in small amounts for normal metabolism; trace
elements or minerals which are inorganic nutrients needed by the body in minute
amounts.

Different types of animals based on feeding mechanisms:

1. substrate-feeders – they live in or on their food source. Examples: earthworms
that feed through the soil where they live in; caterpillars that eat through the
leaves where they live on.
2. filter-feeders – include many aquatic animals which draw in water and strain
small organisms and food particles present in the medium. Examples: whales and
coelenterates
3. fluid-feeders – suck fluids containing nutrients from a living host. Examples:
mosquitoes, leeches, head lice, aphids
4. bulk-feeders – eat relatively large chunks of food and have adaptations like
jaws, teeth, tentacles, claws, pincers, etc. that help in securing the food and
tearing it to pieces. Examples: snakes, cats, man

Different Kinds of digestive compartments in animals

1. Food vacuoles in unicellular organisms – these fuse with lysosomes that

contain hydrolytic enzymes. Example: food vacuole in a protozoa like
Paramecium

2. Gastrovascular cavity or incomplete digestive system – composed of a

 single opening through which food is taken in and where wastes are
disposed of; it is a saclike body cavity. Examples: in the cnidarian Hydra and
in flatworm Planaria

3. Complete digestive system – essentially like a tube with an opening at one

end for taking in food (mouth) and an opening at the other end where
unabsorbed waste materials are eliminated (anus). In between the mouth
and anus, are specialized organs that carry out transport, processing, and
absorption of digested nutrients.

Human Digestion and Nutrient Uptake

Main stages of food processing:
A. Ingestion – the act of eating or feeding; this is coupled with the mechanical
breakdown of food into smaller pieces allowing for a greater surface area for
chemical digestion.
B. Digestion – breakdown of food into particles, then into nutrient molecules
small enough to be chemically digested by enzymes involves breaking of chemical
bonds through the addition of water, i.e., enzymatic hydrolysis
C. Absorption – passage of digested nutrients and fluid across the tube wall and
into the body fluids; the cells take up (absorb) small molecules such as amino
acids and simple sugars.
D. Elimination –expulsion of the undigested and unabsorbed materials from the
end of the gut.

Organs involved in food processing in the human digestive system:

A. The Oral Cavity, Pharynx, and Esophagus
i. Oral Cavity – it is where food is initially chewed into shreds by the teeth and
mixed with saliva by the tongue.

ii. Pharynx –the region in the back of the throat that serves as the entrance to the
esophagus that connects to the stomach and trachea (windpipe). It blocks
breathing as food leaves the pharynx, a flap-like valve (the epiglottis) and the
vocal cords close off the trachea.

iii. Esophagus – connects the pharynx with the stomach. The rhythmic waves of
contraction within its muscular wall called
peristaltic contractions or peristalsis propel the food past a sphincter, into the
stomach.

B. The Stomach. It is a muscular, stretchable sac located just below the

diaphragm. It has 3 important functions. a.) mixes and stores ingested food; b.)
secretes gastric juice that helps dissolve and degrade the food, particularly
proteins and c.), it regulates the passage of food into the small intestine. The
churning action of the stomach with the acidity of the gastric juice convert food
into a thick, liquid mixture called chyme.
C. Small Intestine. It is approximately 6 meters long and is composed of three
regions: the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum. It is where most enzymatic hydrolysis
of the macromolecules from food occurs. The complete digestion of
carbohydrates, fats, and proteins occurs in the duodenum. The rest of the small
intestine is devoted to absorbing water and the products of digestion into the
bloodstream. Absorption takes place in the ileum, which surface area is increased
by villi and microvilli.
D. The Accessory Digestive Organs
The liver – secretes bile for emulsifying fats. The gallbladder stores bile produced
by the liver. Whereas , the pancreas secretes enzymes that break down all major
food molecules; secretes buffers against HCl from the stomach; secretes the
hormone insulin for control of glucose metabolism.
E. The Large Intestine or Colon. It concentrates and stores undigested matter by
absorbing mineral ions and water. Small amount of fluid, sodium, and vitamin K
are absorbed through its walls. Many bacteria live and thrive within the large
intestine where they help process undigested material into the final excretory
product, feces. intestine where they help process undigested material into the
final excretory product, feces.

F. The Rectum & Anus . The rectum is a short extension of the large intestine and
is the final segment of the digestive tract, where the compacted undigested food
from the colon are pushed via peristaltic contractions. The distention of the
rectum triggers expulsion of feces. The anus is the terminal opening of the
digestive system through which feces are expelled.

Mechanisms of digestion and absorption and how nutrients are delivered into
cells
Carbohydrate digestion begins in the mouth but could not continue in the
stomach due to the acidic pH that destroys the amylase. It resumes in the small
intestine where the resulting monosaccharides are absorbed. Proteins are
digested in the stomach and small intestine. Resulting amino acids are absorbed in
the small intestine where they leave the intestinal cell and enter the blood
through a facilitated diffusion carrier in the plasma membranes on the opposite
side. Fat digestion occurs entirely in the small intestine. Although fatty acids and
monoglycerides enter epithelial cells from the intestinal lumen, it is triglycerides
that are released on the other side of the cell and carried by blood capillaries to
be transported throughout the body. Most water-soluble vitamins are absorbed
by diffusion or active transport. Fat-soluble vitamins follow the pathway for fat
absorption. Nutrients or substances pass through the brush border cells that line
the free surface of each villus by active transport, osmosis, and diffusion across
the lipid bilayer of plasma membranes. The nutrients then proceed into the
internal environment and pass to the blood which is collected into the hepatic
portal vein leading to the liver. After flowing through the liver, the blood carrying
the nutrients passes into the hepatic vein which carries the blood back to the
heart to be distributed to the different body tissues.