Animal nutrition

• Animal diet needs

• Overview of food processing
• Evolutionary adaptations of vertebrate
digestive systems
 Animal diet needs
• It must provide fuel for cellular work
• It must supply the organic raw materials
needed to construct organic molecules
• Essential nutrients that the animal cannot
make from raw materials must be provided
in its food
 Fuel for cellular work
• Most of the energy budget from food goes
into ATP production
• Nearly all of an animal’s ATP generation is
based on the oxidation of energy-rich
molecules: carbohydrates, proteins, and
fats
 Raw materials for biosynthesis
• When an animal takes in more calories
than it needs to produce ATP, excess can
be used for biosynthesis
• Animals can fabricate a great variety of
organic molecules from a source of
organic carbon and organic nitrogen
 Nutrients in preassembled form
• Animals require 20 amino acids
– And can synthesize about half of them
• The remaining amino acids, the essential
amino acids
– Must be obtained from food in preassembled
form
• Protein in animal products are complete in
amino acid make up
• Most plant proteins are incomplete
Essential amino acids for adults

Methionine Beans
and other
legumes
Valine

Threonine

Phenylalanine

Leucine
Corn (maize)
and other grains
Isoleucine

Tryptophan

Lysine
Figure 41.10
• Animals can synthesize most of the fatty
acids they need
• The essential fatty acids are certain
unsaturated fatty acids
• Vitamins are organic molecules
– Required in the diet in small amounts

• Minerals are simple inorganic nutrients

– Usually required in small amounts
 Overview of food processing
• The four steps of food processing
– Ingestion, digestion, absorption, elimination
• Digestive systems in animals
 Food processing
• The four stages of
Smallfood processing
molecules

Pieces
of food

Chemical digestion Nutrient

Mechanical (enzymatic hydrolysis) molecules
digestion enter body
cells

Undigested
Food
material

1 INGESTION 2 DIGESTION 3 ABSORPTION 4 ELIMINATION

Figure 41.12
• Sponges digest their food entirely by the
intracellular mechanism
Azure vase sponge (Callyspongia
plicifera)
4 Spongocoel. Water
passing through porocytes
enters a cavity called the
spongocoel.
3 Porocytes. Water enters
the epidermis through
channels formed by
porocytes, doughnut-shapd
cells that span the body wall.
2 Epidermis. The outer
layer consists of tightly
packed epidermal cells.
1 Mesohyl. The wall of this
simple sponge consists of
two layers of cells separated
by a gelatinous matrix, the
mesohyl (“middle matter”).
Figure 33.4
5 Choanocytes. The spongocoel
is lined with feeding cells called
choanocytes. By beating flagella,
the choanocytes create a current that
draws water in through the porocytes.
Osculum
Spicules
Water
flow
Flagellum
Food particles Choanocyte
Collar in mucus
Phagocytosis of
food particles Amoebocyte
6
The movement of the choanocyte
flagella also draws water through its
collar of fingerlike projections. Food
particles are trapped in the mucus
coating the projections, engulfed by
phagocytosis, and either digested or
transferred to amoebocytes.
7 Amoebocyte. Amoebocytes
transport nutrients to other cells of
the sponge body and also produce
materials for skeletal fibers (spicules).
• Animals with simple body plans
– Have a gastrovascular cavity that functions in
both digestion and distribution of nutrients
Tentacles

Mouth
Food

Gastrovascular
cavity
Epidermis
Mesenchyme
Gastrodermis

Nutritive
muscular
cells

Flagella
Gland cells

Food vacuoles

Mesenchyme
Figure 41.13
• Animals with a more complex body plan
– Have a digestive tube with two openings, a
mouth and an anus

• This digestive tube

– Is called a complete digestive tract or an
alimentary canal
Alimentary canals
The human digestive system
From mouth to stomach: the swallowing reflex and esophageal peristalsis (Layer 3)
Secretion of gastric juice
• Gastric ulcers, lesions in the lining
– Are caused mainly by the bacterium
Helicobacter pylori

Bacteria

Mucus
layer of
stomach

1 µm
Figure 41.18
The duodenum
 • The enormous microvillar surface
– Is an adaptation that greatly increases the
rate of nutrient absorption

Microvilli
Vein carrying blood to (brush border)
hepatic portal vessel
Figure 41.23

Blood
capillaries

Epithelial
cells
Muscle layers
Epithelial cells
Large
circular Lacteal
Villi
folds

Key Lymph
Villi vessel
Nutrient Intestinal wall
absorption
• Amino acids and sugars
– Pass through the epithelium of the small
intestine and enter the bloodstream

• After glycerol and fatty acids are absorbed

by epithelial cells
– They are recombined into fats within these cells
• These fats are then mixed with cholesterol
and coated with proteins
– Forming small molecules called chylomicrons,
which are transported into lacteals
Fat globule

Bile salts 1 Large fat globules are

emulsified by bile salts
in the duodenum.

Fat droplets 2 Digestion of fat by the pancreatic

coated with enzyme lipase yields free fatty
bile salts acids and monoglycerides, which
Micelles made then form micelles.
up of fatty acids,
monoglycerides,
and bile salts 3 Fatty acids and mono-
glycerides leave micelles
and enter epithelial cells
by diffusion.

4 Chylomicrons containing fatty

Epithelial substances are transported out
cells of of the epithelial cells and into
small Lacteal lacteals, where they are carried
Figure 41.24 intestine away from the intestine by lymph.
Enzymatic digestion in the human digestive system
• The large intestine, or colon
– Is connected to the small intestine

Figure 41.25
• A major function of the colon
– Is to recover water that has entered the
alimentary canal
• The wastes of the digestive tract, the feces
– Become more solid as they move through the
colon
– Pass through the rectum and exit via the anus
• The colon houses various strains of the
bacterium Escherichia coli
– Some of which produce various vitamins
 Evolutionary adaptations of
vertebrate digestive systems
• Ingestion adaptations
• Digestion adaptations
Dentition and diet
The digestive tracts of a carnivore (coyote) and a herbivore (koala) compared
 Symbiotic Adaptations
• Many herbivorous animals have
fermentation chambers

– Where symbiotic microorganisms digest

cellulose
• The most elaborate adaptations for an
herbivorous diet
– Have evolved in the animals called ruminants
1 Rumen. When the cow first chews and
swallows a mouthful of grass, boluses
(green arrows) enter the rumen.

2 Reticulum. Some boluses

also enter the reticulum. In
Intestine both the rumen and the
reticulum, symbiotic prokaryotes
and protists (mainly ciliates) go
to work on the cellulose-rich
meal. As by-products of their
metabolism, the microorganisms
secrete fatty acids. The cow
periodically regurgitates and
rechews the cud (red arrows),
which further breaks down the
fibers, making them more
accessible to further microbial action.

Esophagus

Figure 41.28
4 Abomasum. The cud, containing great numbers of microorganisms, 3 Omasum. The cow then reswallows
finally passes to the abomasum for digestion by the cow‘s own the cud (blue arrows), which moves to
enzymes (black arrows). the omasum, where water is removed.
INSECT
AMPHIBIAN DIGESTIVE SYSTEM