Resource Acquisition and Transport in Animals Flashcards
What is nutrition?
the process of taking large food
items in, breaking them apart, and then
absorbing them into the body
Why must animals eat?
To supply their body with:
» Chemical energy (fuel)
» Organic molecules (building blocks)
» Essential nutrients
Why do we have the production of chemical energy and how does it work?
- Activity in animal cells depends on chemical energy harvested from food
- Breakdown of carbohydrates, proteins and lipids in cellular respiration produces ATP
Draw the production of Chemical energy diagram
back of book
What is Biosynthesis?
- The production of complex organic molecules, (proteins, polysaccharides, lipids, nucleic acids …) within living organisms or cells
- Raw materials to build these molecules come from the diet.
What does biosynthesis need to happen?
Biosynthesis requires a source of CHNOPS
» Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulphur
What are the results of an unbalance between intake vs needs?
Animals must balance consumption, storage and use of food
» If intake > cellular respiration + biosynthesis → excess stored as fat (weight gain)
» If intake < cellular respiration + biosynthesis → stores of fat utilised (weight loss)
» Insufficient food? = “undernutrition”
Is the storage of food as fat important?
Storage of food is important to survive periods of limited supply
» Animals also have adaptations to reduce cellular respiration and biosynthesis for predictable long-term periods of limited supply (eg, hibernation)
What are “essential nutrients”?
Materials that animals cannot synthesise from simpler organic precursors, that we require, as well as CHNOPS, for our cellular processes (esp. enzyme function)
What are the different types of essesntial nutrients we need?
» Some amino acids and fatty acids
» Vitamins (water-soluble B1-B12 and C; fat-soluble A D, E and K)
» Minerals (Ca, K, Cl, Na, Mg, Fe, F, I, …)
What is the result of a diet lacking in one or more of the essential nutrients?
“malnutrition”
What are some examples of the amino acide and fatty acid essential nutrients we need?
Amino acids (AA) and fatty acid
» Can make some, but not all …
• Humans can make 12 of the 20 AA, but require 8 from their diet (eg tryptophan,methionine, lysine)
• Likewise, animals cannot synthesise some fatty acids (eg linoleic acid)
What are some examples if the Vitamins and minerals essential nutrients we need?
Vitamins and minerals
» Do not make any – need all from the diet
• Humans require 13 vitamins (eg vitamin C) from diet
• Many required in trace amounts (eg iron, copper, manganese, selenium, zinc), and excess amount can be toxic!
What are the different Modes of animal nutrition
- Partial autotrophy (symbiosis with photosynthetic protists)
- Herbivory
- Carnivory
- Omnivory
What are some examples of Partial Autotrophy?
- Invertebrates only
- Zooxanthellae (Mutualistic symbiosis b/w protist and animal cells)
What do all the different modes of nutrition in animals use as food?
- Herbivory: Plants or algae
- Carnivory: Mostly other animals
- Omnivory: Regularly consume plants, algae or other animals
What are the main stages of food processing?
- Ingestion
- Digestion
- Absorption
- Elimination
Draw food processing diagram
in back of book
What are Ingestion - feeding mechanisms and what are some examples?
- Filter feeding
» Strain small organisms/food particles from the surrounding medium (whale) - Substrate feeding
» Live in or on the food (catapillar) - Fluid feeding
» Suck nutrient-rich fluid from host (mosquito) - Bulk feeding
» Most animals are bulk feeders, eating large pieces of food (snake)
What is digestion and what are the different types?
- Break food down into molecules small enough to be absorbed
- Can be:
» Mechanical digestion (chewing)
» Chemical digestion = breaking down polymers into monomers by breaking polymer bonds, eg
• Polysaccharides → simple sugars
• Proteins → amino acids
• Nucleic acids → nucleotides
• Fats and phospholipids → fatty acids
How do animals not digest themselves?
Digestion occurs within compartments
- Switching digestive enzyme activity on/off
» Eg, by regulating the pH
- The cells lining these compartments are protected by mucus, and rapidly replaced
- Compartmentalisation both at the
» Intracellular level (within cells) = lysosomes
» Extracellular level (at the level of the organism)
What are Extracellular Compartments and how do they work?
- Large extracellular compartments linked to external environment
- Digestive enzymes released into compartment breaks down large particles, allowing absorption by phagocytosis
- Gastrovascular cavity, or alimentary canal (variations on a theme)
What is the general make up of the digestive system in humans?
Digestive system = alimentary canal + accessory glands
Draw the Human digestive system with the Accessory Glands
in back of book
What is the mouth used for?
Mouth
» Ingestion
» Digestion: Mechanical (teeth) and chemical (saliva)
What is the stomach used for?
» Chemical digestion (gastric juice, containing HCl and pepsin)
What is the small intestine used for?
» Very long canal (6m!), most chemical digestion occurs here
• “small” refers to its diameter …
» Chemical digestion
• Digestive enzymes secreted by pancreas and small intestine itself
• Bile salts from liver and gall bladder, which act as emulsifiers
» Also major site for absorption
How does absorption in the small intestine work?
- Highly folded surface (villi and microvilli) → very large surface area (200 - 300 m2)
- Both passive and active transport mechanisms in cell lining
What are Gut Microbiome and where are they found?
Symbiotic bacteria that live in digestive tract
» Stomach
» Small intestine
» Large intestine