NUTRITION IN LIVING ORGANISMS

ANIMALS AND MAN

Autotrophs-Autotrophs are
organisms that can produce their
own food, using materials from
inorganic sources.

Heterotrophs- A heterotroph is an organism that

cannot manufacture its own food by carbon
fixation and therefore derives its intake of nutrition
from other sources of organic carbon, mainly plant
or animal matter. In the food chain, heterotrophs
are secondary and tertiary consumers.
 Modes of Intake of Nutrients
These include sucking, chewing, scrapping, siphoning, and swallowing. They vary from
organism to organism.

SWALLOWIN
SUCKING CHEWING SCRAPPING SIPHONING
G
Bees and birds like Ants feed on food It is employed by Eagles and snakes Butterflies suck on
hummingbirds suck particles by snails to feed on like the python the nectar from
the nectar from chewing. leaves. capture their prey flowers through
plants and swallow it siphoning.
whole!
Beaks, teeth, Jaws and antennae help in the above processes.
Food habits of animals
According to their food habit animals are
classified into:
Herbivore (eating only plants or their
parts)
Carnivores, (eating only insects, fish,
other animals, and their eggs)
Omnivores (eating both plants and meat)
Modes of nutrition
Parasitic:
Parasitic organisms, or parasites, live
on or inside other living organisms,
called hosts, and obtain their food
from them. The paradite gets benefit
from the host but the host is harmed.
Different parasites, body louse,
hookworms, tapeworms, leeches, etc.,
have different modes of feeding,
depending upon habit, habitat and
modifications.
SAPROPHYTIC:
Saprophytic organisms, or saprophytes, derive their food from dead
organisms. They secrete enzymes that are released on food material
outside their body. These enzymes break down complex food into
simple forms. Common examples of saprophytes are fungi (moulds,
mushrooms, yeasts) and many bacteria.
Holozoic Nutrition
In holozoic nutrition complex organic
substances are ingested (taken in)
without their being degraded or
decomposed. After intake, such food is
digested by enzymes produced within
the organism. Digested food is absorbed
into the body and the undigested
product is egested (expelled) from the
body. This kind of nutrition is found
mainly in simple ones like Amoeba and
complex ones like human beings.
NUTITION IN HUMANS
THE ALIMENTARY CANAL
The alimentary canal is mainly referred
to as the pathway by which food enters
our body and moves out through the
anus during digestion. It is a tube-like
structure which starts from the mouth
and ends in the anus. The alimentary
canal plays a primary role in the human
digestion and is also termed as the
digestive tract.

The alimentary canal is made up of

Buccal cavity, food pipe, stomach, small

intestine, large intestine, rectum and
anus.
MOUTH AND BUCCAL CAVITY
The teeth
A normal adult mouth has 32 teeth, which (except
for wisdom teeth) have erupted by about age 13:

• Incisors (8 total): The middlemost four teeth on the

upper and lower jaws.
• Canines (4 total): The pointed teeth just outside the
incisors.
• Premolars (8 total): Teeth between the canines and
molars.
• Molars (8 total): Flat teeth in the rear of the mouth,
best at grinding food.
• Wisdom teeth or third molars (4 total): These teeth
erupt at around age 18, but are often surgically
removed to prevent displacement of other teeth.
Children have just 20 teeth, called primary, temporary, or milk teeth. They include
the same 10 teeth in the upper and lower jaw:

• 4 incisors
• 2 canines
• 4 molars
Primary teeth start to erupt through
the gums when a baby is about 6
months old. The lower incisors are
usually the first primary teeth to
come in. Most kids have all 20 of
their primary teeth by age 3.
TONGUE

The tongue may seem like a

simple organ, it has a wide range
of purposes, such as licking,
breathing, tasting, swallowing
and articulating speech. It has
four types of taste buds which
help us to know about the sweet,
sour, bitter and salty tastes.
FOOD PIPE

The food we swallow passes

through a pipe which leads to
the stomach. This pipe is known
as the food pipe or the
oesophagus. The movement of
the food is due to the movement
of the muscles present in the
walls of the oesophagus.
THE STOMACH
The stomach is a muscular organ located on the
left side of the upper abdomen. The stomach
receives food from the esophagus. As food
reaches the end of the esophagus, it enters the
stomach through a muscular valve called the
lower esophageal sphincter.

The stomach secretes mucus, hydrochloric acid

and enzymes that digest food.
Mucus protects the inner lining of the stomach.
Hydrochloride acid kills bacteria and also
provides the acidic medium needed for digestion
of food by the enzymes. The enzymes in the
stomach break down proteins to simpler
substances.
THE SMALL INTESTINE -
DIGESTION
The small intestine is where most chemical digestion
takes place. Many of the digestive enzymes that act in
the small intestine are secreted by the pancreas and
liver and enter the small intestine via the pancreatic
duct. Pancreatic enzymes and bile from the
gallbladder enter the small intestine in response to the
Hormone The three major classes of nutrients that
undergo digestion are proteins, lipids (fats) and
carbohydrates:

Proteins are degraded into amino acids

Lipids (fats) are degraded into fatty acids and
glycerol.
Carbohydrates are degraded into simple sugars, or
monosaccharides (e.g., glucose).
SMALL INTESTINE - THE ABSORPTION
Digested nutrients pass into the blood vessels in the wall of the intestine through
a process of diffusion. The inner wall, of the small intestine, absorhs the digested
food through a finger like projections called villi. The villi increase the surface
area of absorption. The absorbed substances are transported via the blood vessels
to different organs of the body where they are used to build complex substances,
such as the proteins required by our body. The food that remains undigested and
unabsorbed passes into the large intestine.
LARGE INTESTINE

The large intestine is

shorter and wider than the
small intestine. It has
2primary functions:
absorbing water and
minerals, and storing and
propelling faeces toward
the rectum for elimination.
It is eliminated through the
anus and the process is
called egestion.
 NUTRITION IN CUD CHEWING
HERBIVORE ANIMALS
Ruminants swallow the food without chewing. After
feeding, they bring the food from the stomach back
into the mouth and chew it leisurely. This process is
called rumination and such animals are called as
ruminants.
Process of digestion: Grass-eating animals swallow
the food quickly and store it in the rumen.  Rumen
also inhabits cellulose digestic bacteria which
establish a symbiotic relationship with the animal
stomach.
Digestion in ruminants is a good example of
symbiosis. Microorganisms present in the stomach of
ruminants help in digesting the cellulose and in turn
obtain shelter and nourishment form the animal.
Digestive juices of the reticulum partially digest the
food. The partially digested food in the reticulum is
called as cud
While resting, cow brings back the cud into the
mouth for regurgitation.
The symbiotic bacteria present in the
caecum help in complete digestion of
cellulose. Digestion of food is
completed in the intestine.
As the symbiotic bacteria are not
present in the human digestive
system, humans cannot digest
cellulose.
Food is chewed completely and
swallowed into omasum for further
digestion.
Then the food moves into abomasum
for digestion brought about by
digestive juices.
Nutrition in amoeba
NUTRITION IN AMOEBA
Amoeba follows holozoic mode of nutrition in which the solid food particles are ingested which
are then acted upon by enzymes and digested.
Amoeba engulfs food by temporary
finger-like projections of its body
surface called pseudopodia.
When a pseudopodium fuses with
the food particle, it forms a food
vacuole.
Complex substances are broken
down into simple substances inside
the food vacuole. These simple
substances are then diffused into the
cytoplasm.
The remaining unwanted material is
taken to the cell surface and is
thrown out.
Than
ks!