A Level Biology

Digestion and absorption

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What is digestion?
▪ Digestion is the process of breaking down
large organic molecules into simple
absorbable organic molecules with the help
of chemical and mechanical changes.
▪ Several different types of digestive
enzymes are involved in the digestive
systems of mammals. These enzymes are
produced by specialised cells which are
released into the gut, where it gets mixed
with the food.

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Digestion of carbohydrates
▪ A digestive enzyme called amylase produced
by both the salivary glands and the pancreas maltasecra
catalyses the conversion of starch  Maltose ------------> glucose + glucose
(polysaccharides) into maltose
(disaccharides). This reaction involves the
hydrolysis of glycosidic bonds present in the sucrase
starch.  Sucrose ------------> glucose + fructose
▪ Ileum is the latter part of the small intestine.
Epithelial cells lining the ileum are attached to
lactase
certain enzymes called membrane-bound
disaccharidases. They are involved in  Lactose -------------> glucose +
breaking down disaccharides into galactose
monosaccharides. Hydrolysis of glycosidic
bonds take place.

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Digestion of lipids
 The breakdown of lipids into monoglycerides and fatty acids is catalysed
by lipase enzymes which are made in the pancreas. Liver produces bile
salts which emulsify lipids ( formation of small lipid droplets).
 This is very important in lipid digestion. Many small lipid droplets increase
the surface area of lipid for lipases to work on more than a single large
droplet.
 After the lipid breakdown, fatty acids and monoglycerides attach
themselves to the bile salts in order to form micelles.

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Digestion of proteins
The breakdown of proteins occur by a mix of different peptidases (or proteases). These
enzymes hydrolyse the peptide bonds between amino acids when catalysing the
conversion of proteins into amino acids.

Endopeptidases
 Endopeptidases facilitate in
hydrolysing peptide bonds present
inside a protein. Chymotrypsin
and trypsin are 2 types of
endopeptidases synthesised and
secreted in pancreas and the small
intestine respectively.
 Pepsin, another endopeptidase,
works only in acidic conditions.
Exopeptidases
 Exopeptidases facilitate in hydrolysing peptide bonds
present at the end of a protein.
 Dipeptidases which are exopeptidases, work
particularly on dipeptides. They hydrolyse the
peptide bond present between the two amino acids
which make up the dipeptide.
 Most often, dipeptidases are formed in the small
intestine’s epithelial cells, more specifically the cell
surface membrane of epithelial cells.

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Absorption of the products of digestion
Monosaccharides:
▪ Glucose and galactose are
absorbed with sodium ions by
active transport through a co-
transporter protein. The same co-
transporter protein is used for both.
▪ Fructose uses a different co-
transporter protein and is absorbed
by facilitated diffusion.

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Fatty acids and monoglycerides

 Micelles aid in moving fatty acids

and monoglycerides towards the
epithelium.
 Since they can break up and form
once again on a constant basis,
they can ‘release’ fatty acids and
monoglycerides to facilitate
absorption.

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Amino acids
▪ They are absorbed in the same
way as glucose and galactose.
▪ Sodium ions are transported
actively out from the epithelial cells
into the ileum.
▪ So they diffuse back into the cells
by way of sodium-dependent
transporter proteins found in the
epithelial cell membranes along
with the amino acids.

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