Exercise 11

DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
 Stages of Food Processing
1. Procurement of food - gathering food; taking it into the mouth
2. Mastication – chewing the food
3. Ingestion – swallowing the food
4. Digestion – chemical breakdown of food into simpler molecules
5. Absorption – transfer of nutrients from the digested food to the small intestine
then to the blood vessels
6. Circulation – transport of nutrients from the blood vessels to the other cells in
the body
7. Assimiliation – uptake or integration of the nutrients in the cells
8. Utilization – usage of the nutrients by the cells for growth, maintenance and
energy production
9. Defecation – the elimination of undigested food and wastes through the anus
 Types of Digestive System

1. Incomplete
• Gastrovascular Cavity
• Mouth and anus are of the
same opening (eg. Hydra and
Planaria)
2. Complete
• Alimentary Canal
• Mouth and anus are separate
openings
• With digestive organs (eg.
nematodes, insects and vertebrates)
 Alimentary Canal
Main Digestive Organs
• Mouth (Buccal or Oral Cavity)
• Pharynx
• Esophagus
• Stomach
• Small Intestine
• Large Intestine
• Anus (Cloaca)

Accessory Organs
• Liver Salivary glands
• Pancreas Gall bladder
 Buccal Cavity
• entry site and initial digestion of food
• Parts:
• Other parts:
» Lips (lip folds)
» Internal nares
» Upper and lower jaws (mandibles)
» Tongue » Eustachian tubes
» Teeth » Vocal sacs
» Salivary glands
 Tongue
• A free muscular structure on the floor of the mouth
• In frogs
– helps in the procurement of food
• In mammals
– Epithelial taste buds for tasting food
– Shapes the food into a ball called bolus during mastication
– Pushes the bolus to the very back of the oral cavity and into the
pharynx
 Tongue
• Protrusible tongue with horny teeth in lampreys for rasping flesh
• Nonmuscular tongue in fishes only for holding prey
• Mobile tongues in tetrapods for gathering food
• Insectivorous vertebrates have spiny or sticky tongues

Lamprey tongue
 Teeth
• For grinding and mastication of food
• In frogs
– Minute dentures are not specialized for chewing
• Birds lack teeth
• Snakes have teeth that are sloping backward for prey
retention
• Carnivores – pointed incisors and canines.
• Herbivores – broad teeth with ridged surfaces.
• Omnivores – combination of both dentition
 Salivary Glands
• Food in the mouth triggers a nervous reflex that causes the
salivary glands to deliver saliva
• Contents of the saliva
– Mucin (glycoprotein)
• Protects the soft lining of the mouth from abrasion
• Lubricates the food for easier ingestion
– Buffers that neutralize acid in the mouth to prevent tooth
decay
– Antibacterial agents
– Salivary amylase (enzyme) which begins starch digestion
 Salivary Glands
• Modifications and exceptions
– Absence of salivary glands in most fishes and
amphibians
– Snakes: salivary glands produce venom that is injected
through the fangs to immobilize prey
– Human: with 3 pairs of salivary glands
 Other Parts of the Buccal Cavity
• Internal nares
– Connected to the external nares for the entrance of air
• Eustachian tubes
– Connected to the cavity of the middle ear under the eardrum

• Vocal sacs
– membranes under
the throat or on the
corner of the mouth
that distend during a
call
 Mouth
Buccal Cavity

• Frogs keep their mouth tightly closed

• To guarantee prey retention and facilitate ingestion
• To breathe through their external nares and force the air
through the trachea
• To maintain a certain pitch when a frog calls (eg. mating
calls need to be issued with the mouth closed; otherwise,
pitch would become higher changing the mating call into
a territorial call)
 Pharynx
• Throat
• Intersection that leads to both the opening of the esophagus and
the glottis of the trachea
• During swallowing of food
• Glottis – the opening of the trachea (windpipe)
• Epiglottis – cartilaginous flaps that block the glottis to prevent
the wrong entry of food bolus into the trachea
 Esophagus
• Conducts food from the mouth to
the stomach through peristalsis
• Peristalsis – alternating waves of
contraction of striated (top of
esophagus) and smooth muscles
• Modifications
• Fishes and amphibians
have short esophagus
• Birds have crop at the
caudal portion of their
esophagus
• Crop – food storage that
reduces the frequency of
feeding in birds
 Stomach
• J-shaped organ with greater and lesser
curvatures
• Regions:
• Cardiac region – near the heart
• Food enters at the
cardioesophageal sphincter
• Fundus and body
• Pylorus – funnel-shaped terminal
end
• Food empties into the small
intestine at the pyloric sphincter
• Rugae – internal folds of the mucosa
 Stomach

Mucosal regions of
the stomach

• Gastric pits formed by folded mucosa

• Glands and specialized cells in the gastric gland region secrete the
contents of gastric juice
Specialized cells of the mucosa
• Mucous neck cells – produce sticky alkaline mucus that protects the
stomach from digesting itself
• Chief cells – produce pepsinogen
• Parietal cells – produce hydrochloric acid (HCl) to convert
pepsinogen into pepsin
• Pepsin in turn activates more pepsin and hydrolyzes proteins
• Endocrine cells – produce gastrin that stimulate other cells to
produce gastric juices
 Stomach
• Food storage, breakdown and conversion of food bolus into a nutrient broth
called acid chyme.
• Food in the stomach stimulates the stomach wall to release a hormone
called gastrin.
• Gastrin stimulates the production of gastric juices.
• Modifications
• Birds do not have teeth so they
use gizzards (ventriculus) at the
posterior portion of their stomach
to grind food.
• The stomach of ruminants (eg.
cattle, goats) are divided into
chambers with symbiotic
microorganisms that digest
cellulose of plants.
Chambers of the ruminant stomach
• Rumen – where food enters and is partially digested by microorganisms
into a pulpy mass
• Reticulum – where the pulpy mass goes next and thoroughly regurgitated;
food then goes back to the rumen or to omasum when it has become very
liquid already
• Omasum – strain particles from the liquid food
• Abomasum – digestion continues with gastric enzymes involved
 Small Intestine

• Final digestion of food through

the enzymatic hydrolysis of
macromolecules
• Absorption of nutrients into the
bloodstream
• Regions of the small intestine
• Humans: duodenum,
jejunum and ileum
• Frogs: duodenum and
ileum
 Small Intestine
Villi
• Greater surface area for
nutrient absorption

Microvilli
• Small projections or brush
border of the plasma
membrane of the
absorptive cells
Chemical Digestion in the Small Intestine (SI)
• Enzymes that are mixed with acid chyme entering SI
• Enzymes from intestinal cells – break double sugars into simple
sugars; digest other proteins
• Pancreatic enzymes - help complete starch, protein, fat and nucleic
acid digestion; alkaline content neutralizes acidic chyme
• Bile salts produced in the liver then stored in the gall bladder –
emulsify and digest fats
 Small Intestine
Absorption in the Small Intestine
• Water is absorbed along the length of the small
intestine.
• Most end products of digestion are absorbed by cells
through active transport.
• Lipids are absorbed by diffusion.

Hence, food has to be thoroughly digested into simpler

molecules prior to absorption so that the selectively permeable
plasma membrane can facilitate their entry into the cells by
active transport and diffusion.
 Intestinal Motility and Control
• Segmentation
• Oscillating back-and-forth
movement created by the
repeated contractions of the
smooth muscles in the small
intestine.
• Helps mixes the chyme with
digestive secretions and
increases the efficiency of
absorption.
 Large Intestine

• Larger but shorter than SI

• Absorption of water
• Eliminates indigestible
food from the body as
feces
• Does not participate in
digestion of food except in
herbivores
• Goblet cells produce
mucus to act as lubricant
 Cecum of the Large Intestine
• Cecum – saclike first part of the large intestine
• Rabbits, horses, rats and koalas have large cecum where
microorganisms digest cellulose
Accessory Organs of the Digestive System
Pancreas
Liver
 Pancreas
• Produces a wide spectrum of pancreatic enzymes for chemical
digestion in the small intestine
• Pancreatic amylase – breaks down polysaccharides into
disaccharides and monosaccharides
• Trypsin, carboxypeptidase and chymotrypsin – digest proteins into
small peptides and individual amino acids
• Lipases – split triglycerides into glycerol and free fatty acids
• Nucleases – digests nucleic acids
 Liver
• Largest gland in the body
• Humans: 4 lobes; frogs: 3 lobes
• Hepatocytes take up nutrients
absorbed from the intestines
and release them into the
bloodstream
• Produces bile salts which are
temporarily stored in the gall
bladder then delivered into the
duodenum of the small intestine
through the bile duct
• Bile salts emulsify and digest
fats during the final chemical
digestion of food in the small
intestine