Digestion Structures
This organ is where digestion begins and contains teeth and saliva to break down food.
What is the mouth?
This class of macromolecules provides energy for the body and is broken down by enzymes called carbohydrases.
What are carbohydrates?
This physical process involves the mixing and churning of food in the stomach to help break it down into a semi-liquid form.
What is mechanical digestion?
Enzymes work best under these conditions, where the pH level and temperature are "perfect".
What are optimal conditions?
This enzyme, secreted by the pancreas, is responsible for breaking down proteins into smaller peptides and amino acids.
What is trypsin?
This muscular tube moves food from the mouth to the stomach through peristalsis.
What is the esophagus?
These types of enzymes break down fats into fatty acids and glycerol.
What are lipases?
This process moves nutrients from the small intestine into the bloodstream.
What is absorption?
This factor can slow down or stop enzyme activity when it binds to the enzyme's active site, preventing the substrate from interacting.
What is competitive inhibition?
The breakdown of fats by lipase results in the formation of these two simpler molecules.
What are fatty acids and glycerol?
This organ contains hydrochloric acid and digestive enzymes, and is where protein digestion begins.
What is the stomach?
Proteins are broken down into amino acids by this class of enzymes.
What are erespins? or proteases
This part of digestion involves breaking down complex carbohydrates into simple sugars like glucose.
What is chemical digestion of carbohydrates?
This type of enzyme inhibition occurs when a molecule binds to a site other than the active site, changing the enzyme's shape and reducing its activity.
What is non-competitive inhibition?
This process allows for the movement of food through the esophagus and into the stomach by a series of muscle contractions.
What is peristalsis?
These are muscular valves that control the passage of food between different sections of the digestive system, like between the stomach and the small intestine.
What are sphincters?
The process by which large molecules like carbohydrates are broken down into smaller ones to be absorbed by the circulatory system.
What is chemical digestion? or hydrolysis
This hormone is released in response to stomach contents entering the small intestine
What is secretin?
Enzyme activity can be controlled by this process, where the end product of a metabolic pathway inhibits the activity of an enzyme earlier in the pathway.
What is feedback inhibition?
This part of the small intestine is where most digestion and nutrient absorption occurs.
What is the duodenum?
This organ absorbs water and salts, and forms feces from indigestible food matter.
What is the large intestine? or Colon
This enzyme, found in saliva, breaks down starch into smaller sugars.
What is amylase?
This hormone is released by the stomach to signal the production of gastric juices during digestion.
What is gastrin?
This factor, along with pH, can influence the rate at which enzymes work, with extreme temperatures potentially causing the enzyme to denature.
What is temperature?
This is not an enzyme but is secreted from a accessory organ to help break down lipids through emulsification.
What is bile?