Life’s Maintenance System

The Need to Take in Food

- Organisms must obtain nutrients using food procurement structures, processes, and
adaptations.

All living organisms require food because it contains the needed energy and nutrients essential to
maintain life.

Metabolism refers to all the chemical reactions that take place inside an organism’s body.

The intake of food from various sources and the process that convert food substances into living
matter are known as nutrition.

Plant Nutrition

- Plants and other photosynthetic organism can produce their own food by converting
inorganic components into organic molecules  autotrophs or self-feeders

Animal Nutrition

- Animals that must consume organic molecules from other organisms for nutrition are
heterotrophs.

ANIMAL NUTRITION

ANIMALS FALLS INTO THREE DIETARY CATEGORIES:

1. Herbivores (exclusive to eating plants)

2. Carnivores (exclusively to eating flesh)
3. Omnivores (eat both plants and animals)

Detritivores, also known as detritus feeders or eaters are heterotrophs that obtain nutrient
from decaying bodies of plants and animals called detritus, usually breaking them into
smaller sizes before decomposers act on them.

A detritivore is an organism that eats dead or decaying plants or animals as food.

Soil swelling detritivores are earthworms, slugs, and some insects such as dung flies,
woodlice, and springtails.

In aquatic ecosystems, bottom dwellers such as crabs, sea cucumbers, and sea stars play
important role in breaking down organic matter.

Scavengers eat large chunk of organic matter.

TYPES OF DIGESTIVE SYSTEM IN ANIMALS:

1. Intracellular Digestion
2. Extracellular Digestion

Intracellular Digestion

 It happens inside the cells through food vacuoles through phagocytosis

 Single-celled organism such as protists, amoeba, and paramecium.
 Extracellular Digestion

It happens when food is broken down outside the cells. Organisms with gastrovascular
activity.

FEEDING MECHANISMS IN ANIMALS:

1. Suspension Feeding
2. Filter Feeding
3. Substrate Feeding
4. Fluid Feeding
5. Bulk Feeding

Suspension Feeding

 These organisms uses their body parts to move water toward a feeding structure to
sift through the food suspended in water.
Ex. Plume worms

Filter Feeding

 These organisms extract food particles suspended in surface water and sieve it to
various filtering structures.

Substrate Feeding

 These organisms eat their way through the soil while digesting and excreting food as
they crawl.

Fluid Feeding

 These organisms ingest food by sucking nutrient-rich fluid from a living host.

Bulk Feeding

 These organisms ingest large pieces of food into their mouth.

NUTRIENT UPTAKE IN CELLS AMONG ANIMALS:

1. Phagocytosis
2. Pinocytosis
3. Receptor-mediated endocytosis

Phagocytosis – “Cell Eating”

 A process wherein cells take in large particles or solids through infolding of the cell
membrane to form endocytosis vesicles.

Pinocytosis – “Cell Drinking”

 A process wherein a cell takes in fluid by the invagination of the cell membrane that
form vesicle or vacuole.
 STAGES OF FOOD PROCESSING

1. Ingestion
2. Digestion
3. Absorption
4. Elimination

Ingestion – the act of eating or taking in food via the mouth cavity

Digestion – involves the mechanical (chewing or tearing food) and chemical (uses
enzyme) breakdown of large food molecules into soluble or diffusible molecules that can
be absorbed by the cells.

Absorption – small molecules (building blocks) will be absorbed by the lining of digestive
tract.

Elimination – undigested food is removed from the digestive tract.

HUMAN DIGESTIVE SYSTEM

- It is composed of a tubular alimentary canal and its accessory glands.

- It starts in the mouth and ends in the anus.

 Ingestions starts with the mouth or oral cavity.

 The mucin in saliva helps to soften the food while the teeth have role in masticating
food and breaking it down into smaller pieces.

 The enzyme in the saliva, salivary amylase, begins the chemical digestion of food.
 The tongue assists by rolling the food into small, slippery, masses of boli (s: bolus)

 The food is swallowed into esophagus, a long tube connecting the mouth and
stomach.
 Muscle layers are surrounding the esophagus cause rhythmic, wavelike known as
peristalsis, which moves food along the gut. (5-6 seconds)

 Muscular ring like valves called sphincters, regulates the passage of food into and
out into the saclike stomach. (2-6 hours)
 The partially digested food enters the J-shaped stomach.

 The gastric glands are composed of two types of secretory cells:

 Parietal cells secrete hydrochloric acid and chief cells secrete pepsinogen (pepsin).
 The food in the stomach stimulates the gastric glands to secrete gastric juice into the
stomach cavity.

 Peristalsis in the stomach wall churns the food and mixes it well with gastric juice.
Breaking down and dissolving nutrients.
 The partially digested food becomes liquefied, together with gastric juice forms
chime, passes in small amount into the duodenum.
 The stomach is connected to the small intestine through a muscular valve called
pyloric sphincter.
 The small intestine is divided into: duodenum, jejunum and the ileum.
 The bile and enzymes produced continue the digestion process.

 The accessory organs, liver and pancreas, help the digestive process.
 The pancreas produces hormones responsible for controlling the glucose level in the
blood and releases bicarbonate that neutralizes the acidity of the chime.

 The liver aids in digestion by producing an alkaline, greenish yellow liquid called bile,
which is stored in the gallbladder.

 In the small intestine, proteins are broken down into amino acids,
 Carbohydrates (starch and sugars) into simple sugars.
 Fats are broken down into fatty acids and glycerol.

 The small intestine has well-adapted structures for the absorption of digested food
products.
 The surface walls contains numerous transverse folds and furrows, whereas its inner
lining is covered with millions of tiny fingerlike structures called villi (s: villus)

 The epithelial cells of the villi bear numerous cytoplasmic extensions called
microvilli.
 Both villi and microvilli increase the surface absorption of the small intestine. It is
absorbed into a network of blood vessels and carry it to all parts of the body.

 When cells have absorbed the nutrients, they will be transported to provide fuel and
essential raw materials that the body needs.
 The process of transport and use of absorbed nutrients is known as assimilation.

 Excess fats are stored in special tissues, called adipose tissues located beneath the
skin, around the heart, the kidneys and in the mesenteries that bind the intestines,

 At the junction between the small intestine and the ascending colon is a small sac,
the caecum and the blindly ending appendix.

 Helpful bacteria residents of the large intestine produce certain vitamins such as K
and B2, which are needed by the body.
 Nutrients that are not absorbed in the large intestine form a solid wastes known as
feces.

 The main function of the large intestine is to absorb water and mineral salts from
undigested food material. (18-24 hours)

 Feces which are made of dead bacteria and some fat and protein molecules,
undigested food roughage, dried out digested juices, mucus, and discarded intestinal
cells is stored temporarily in the rectum until defecation.
 When the rectum contracts, the feces is expelled through an opening called the
anus.
 The process of removing undigested matter from the body is called egestion or
defecation.

NUTRIONAL REQUIREMENTS OF ANIMALS

1. Water
2. Carbohydrates
3. Proteins
4. Lipid
5. Minerals
6. Vitamins

Water

 Helps the body digest food and eliminate waste products, regulates body
temperature, maintains blood pH and volume, and keeps the skin and internal
respiratory surfaces moist. (8 glasses per day)

Carbohydrates

 Provide the main source of energy in the body.

 Simple sugars found in sugar cane, apple, or mangoes (glucose) or Complex
sugar found in grains, potatoes and vegetables (cellulose).

Proteins

 Essential for the growth of new protoplasm and repair of worn-out body cells
and tissues.
 Synthesis of hormones, enzymes and antibodies for protection.
 Proteins are composed of Amino acids (20 essential amino acids)
 Found in eggs, cheese and meat.

Lipids

 Function for energy and structural support in cell membranes, as myelin

sheaths in neurons and in production of hormones.
 In form of fats and oil.
 Too much fat could lead to serious health-related consequences.

Fats

 These are made up of long chains of fatty acids connected with glycerol
molecules.
 Saturated (found in butter and animal products) or unsaturated found in
plant oil such as corn or canola oil).
 Unsaturated fats are more beneficial.

Minerals

 Inorganic materials needed by the body to maintain homeostasis.

 Ex. Calcium (building bones and teeth, normal muscle functions, nerve
transmission and blood clotting.
  Trace elements (iodine, manganese and zinc)

Vitamins

 Complex organic compounds that are not manufactured by the body.

 Fat-soluble (A,E,D,K) or fat-insoluble (C,B)

The amount of energy is measured in terms of calorie (cal).

Calorie refers to the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of
water by 1 ̊C.

Kilocalorie (Kcal) is equal to 1000 calories which is used by nutritionists to refer to the
amount of energy in food.

The information on the food labels can help us make good choices and compare the value of
different foods.

PLANT NUTRITION

PLANT NUTRITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

Plants have an open growth system that requires nutrients as raw materials.

1. Carbon dioxide
2. Water

To make all the carbohydrates in their bodies through photosynthesis.

A chemical analysis of plant’s body shows that carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen as well as
trace minerals are needed by plants.

NUTRITIONAL ADAPTATION BY PLANTS:

Carnivorous plants (lack nitrogen) capture and digest small insects for their survival and continuous
growth

Plants need Ammonia (NH3)  nitrogen-fixing bacteria are housed inside the plant tissues called
nodules.

Ex. Legumes like peanuts

SIGNS OF NUTRIENT DEFICIENCY IN PLANTS:

1. Leaves are darker than usual, loss of leaves  Phosphate

2. White deposit, stunted growth, plants die back  Carbon dioxide
3. Light green upper leaves, yellow, and shriveled  Nitrogen
4. Stunted and misshaped new leaves  Calcium
5. Yellow – white new leaves with green vein  Iron
6. Yellowing at tips and edges, dead or yellow patches or sports  Potassium
7. Yellow spots, elongated holes between veins  Manganese
8. Lower leaves turn yellow from inward  Magnesium

THE NEED TO ELIMINATE WASTES AND OTHER HARMFUL SUBSTANCES

- Organisms are equipped with waste elimination structures to remove harmful substances
and maintain homeostasis.
ANIMAL EXCRETION

- All living organisms produce wastes as products from the chemical reactions that take place
in their bodies.
- The removal of the metabolic wastes out of the body is called excretion.

Types of Excretory organs in animals:

 Diffusion through contractile vacuoles in Amoeba

 Excretory pores through flame cells in Planaria
 Segmented nephridia in Earthworm
 Malpighian tubules in Insect
 Kidney, ureters, and bladder in vertebrates.

HUMAN EXCRETORY SYSTEM

- Excretion is the process by which you get rid of toxic chemicals, excess water, salts and
carbon dioxide and maintain osmotic and pH balance.

Major Wastes Excreted by Humans

Excretory Organ Waste Removed Source

Lungs Carbon dioxide Respiration
Water vapor Respiration and excess in diet
Kidneys Urea Wastes in amino acids
Salts Excess in diet
Water Excess in diet and respiration
Skin Urea (sweat) Waste amino acids
Liver Urea Excess amino Acids

Kidneys: The Main Excretory Organ

- These are reddish brown, bean-shaped located in the lower back.

- Receives and filters almost one liter of blood per minute.

Regulating the amount of water and salts contained in the blood plasma.

Regions: renal cortex, renal medulla and renal pelvis.

Nephron: Kidney’s Filtrating Unit

- Actual filtering process happens within the kidney’s millions of microscopic blood-filtering
factories called nephrons.

Each nephron is made up of a complex network of tiny tubes surrounded by a tight ball of capillaries.
They filter wastes from the blood, retain useful molecules, and produce urine.

Processes involved in Excretion:

1. Filtration
 2. Reabsorption and Secretion
3. Urine Elimination

Filtration – starts at the cup-shaped capsule of the nephron called the Bowman’s capsule, a fine
network of capillaries called glomerulus (p:glomeruli)

- The blood pressure inside the glomerulus forces a fluid composed of small molecules into
the hollow interior of the Bowman’s capsule. Fluid is now called filtrate.

Reabsorption and Secretion – reabsorption of nutrients, salts, and most of the water happens in the
renal tubules.

- During secretion, the filtrate reaches the end portion of the renal tubule, substances like
waste and toxic materials move from the blood into the filtrate. Secreted to form urine.

Urine Elimination – urine from the collecting ducts in the kidney moves it to ureters, tubes that
carry urine urinary bladder from kidney to the, a hollow muscular sac that stores urine.

Urine Elimination – The urinary bladder holds about one pint of urine (urination: 1/3 full)

- Urine leaves the bladder and exits the body through the urethra.
- Elimination of urine from the body through the urethra is called urination.

PLANT EXTRACTION

- Plants remove wastes through their stomata.

- Guard cells surround each stomata.

When the guard cells swell with water, the stoma opens. When the guard cells lose water, they bow
together, closing the stomata.

Life’s Response and Coordinating Systems

Response, Control, and Regulation

- The nervous system and endocrine system work together and act as communication
network that allows the body to maintain internal balance.

To keep the body within homeostatic condition several organ systems must work together and
communicate with one another.

The two main organ system responsible for the body’s communication are endocrine and nervous
system.

Nervous System

- It is composed of physically connected networks of cells, tissues, and organs that control
your thoughts, senses, and movements.

Endocrine System

- It helps various processes such as growth, development, and responding to external stimuli

Difference Between the Nervous and Endocrine Systems

 Feature Nervous System Endocrine System

Signal Electrical impulses Chemical impulses

(action potentials) (hormones)

Pathway Transmission by neurons Transported by blood

Speed of information Fast Slow

Duration of effect Short-lived Short or long-lived

Types of action and response Voluntary or involuntary Always involuntary

Target Localized Often distant

(cells connected to neuron (many cells can be affected)

Animal Nervous System

- In Animal kingdom, the nervous system also differs in terms of complexity and adaptive
structures because animals differ in size or ability to move. Simple nervous system are found
in simple and immobile animals.
- Cnidarians, Echinoderms, and coelenterates such as sea sponges lack a true nervous system
but have a system of separate but connected nerve cells known as nerve net. It is capable of
supporting some of their complex behavior.

- Flatworms with bilateral symmetry have defined head and a tail regions that are equipped
with a central nervous system, two nerve cords, and a peripheral nervous system. They have
neurons that cluster together as ganglia, forming a small brain.
- Insect’s nervous system contains a brain, ventral nerve cord, and ganglia which controls
movement and behaviors without need much control from the brain.

Vertebrates have a more complex nervous system with centralized and specialized structures.
Higher forms of vertebrates including humans consist of a central nervous system that contains the
brain and the spinal cord, and a peripheral nervous system composed of sensory and motor nerves.

Neurons

- The nervous system is made up of neurons, that transmit and receive electrical signals and
glial cells that provide support and function to other neurons.
- The human body consist around 86 billion of neurons, enough to last a lifetime. Neurons are
the basic functional units of structure and function of the nervous system.

Parts of Neurons

 Cell body – the largest part of neuron. It contains the nucleus.

 Dendrites – the branching threadlike structures that receive message from neighboring cells
and carries these information toward the body cell.
 Axon – tail-like fiber that extends from the cell body, carries messages away from the cell
body and passes the to other cells
 Myelin sheath – it covers the axon, which speeds up the travel of the nerve impulses.
 Axon terminal – axon splits into many feather-like fibers at the far end. It pass on messages
to the dendrites of the other neurons.

Three Types of Neurons

 1. Sensory Neurons – detect stimuli and transmit signal to the brain.
2. Interneurons – receive signals from the sensory neuron and passes within the brain and
spinal cord where it will be processed.
3. Motor Neurons – relays the message to the tissues in the body, such as muscles, for action.

Neuron’s Direction of Impulse Transmission

1. Incoming signals are received and converted to a change in membrane potential.

2. A change in membrane potential initiates action potentials.
3. Action potentials are conducted to the axon terminals.
4. Neurotransmitter is released and transmits a signal to the target cell.

Nerve Impulses

- We receive signals or stimuli from the environment every single moment of your lives. They
carry information that tells you to be alert, relax, stop, or focus. Nervous system plays a vital
role in carrying signals throughout the body in the form of nerve impulses.
- Nerve impulses is a wave of chemical and electrical change that is conducted along the
membrane of neuron, which is basically from sensory neuron to interneuron to motor
neuron.
- When neuron is not transmitting any signal, it is said to be in resting state. Resting potential
is the difference in the charge across the membrane, which contains potential energy
required to transmit the electrical energy as needed.
- When you start to hear the alarm, sensory receptors in your ears in the form of hair cells are
triggered, causing a change in the charge distribution and eliciting an electrical impulse
called action potential.

Synapse

- Neurons do not touch each other, and neither do they touch effector organs. Instead, there
is a tiny gap called synapse, between to adjacent neurons, and between neurons and
effectors.

Neurotransmitters

- When an impulse reaches the end of axon, sending information across the synapse in the
form of chemical messengers called neurotransmitters.
- Chemical molecules are poured out at the ends of the neuron (axon terminals) as the nerve
impulse nears the synapse. Neurotransmitter molecules diffuse across the synapse and bind
to the receptors on the next neuron or effector cells.

Reflex Arc

- One of the simplest responses of the nervous system is called a reflex arc, just like removing
your hand as quick as you can when you hold a hot object. It is an automatic response to a
change in the environment.

Divisions of the Nervous System

- All signals from your senses to the muscles pass through the divisions of the nervous system.

Central Nervous System (CNS)

  The command center of the body.
 It processes information and sends instructions to other body parts.
 Receives and interprets the messages from the nerves, and stores part of it for future use
and sends signals to the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

Brain - main control center of the central nervous system. Also transmits and receives messages
through the spinal cord.

The brain is covered by three protective layers called meninges:

1. Dura mater – outermost thick layer, protects the brain and spinal cord.
2. Arachnoid mater – middle layer
3. Pia mater – last layer, directly covers the brain and spinal cord like a plastic wrap.

Cerebrum – the largest region and the most noticeable part of human brain. It makes up 85% of the
human brain.

Cerebral cortex – forms the thickest part of the human brain, consisting of folds called gyri.

Corpus callosum – cortex is divided into left and right hemispheres, this is the thick fiber bundle.

Frontal lobe – the primary motor area located at the front of the brain over the eyes which governs
voluntary commands.

Parietal lobe – located at the top of the brain, it is the primary sensory area that receives
information from the skin, skeletal muscles, and joints.

Cerebrum – the largest region and the most noticeable part of human brain. It makes up 85% of the
human brain.

Occipital lobe – located at the back of the brain and is responsible for vision, specifically seeing and
understanding visual stimuli.

Temporal lobe – located at the base of the brain and is primarily involved in processing and
interpreting sounds or auditory stimuli.

Diencephalon – located beneath the cerebrum and divided into the hypothalamus and thalamus.

Thalamus – acts a gateway and receives sensory and motor inputs from the body, except
smell, and receives back from the cortex. Signals from the eyes, ears, and skin received by
the thalamus via the cranial nerves and from the spinal cord.

- Mental processes, consciousness, arousal, and deep states.

Hypothalamus – found below the thalamus, which controls the endocrine system by sending
signals to the pituitary gland.

- The integration center which is also the body’s thermostat, making sure that thirst level,
food and water intake, energy expenditure, and sleep cycles.

Cerebellum – the second largest part of the brain, located just behind the brain stem. Its role
focuses on the coordination of the muscle actions and maintaining balance.

Brain stem – it connects the brain to the spinal cord. It consist of three distinct regions: pons,
medulla oblongata, and midbrain.
 - It coordinates many survival functions of the body such as breathing, heart rate, sleep, and
wakefulness.
- Controls involuntary actions.

Limbic system – a set of connected structures that include the diencephalon and cerebrum that
regulate emotions that are related to fear and motivation. It also explains why sexual and eating
activities are pleasurable or mental stress can cause high blood.

Amygdala – temporal lobe structure responsible for fear and recognizing fearful faces.

Hippocampus – the seat of memory formation.

Spinal Cord – provides the link between the brain and the rest of the body. It is connected via the
brainstem and extends down the body and protected by the spinal column.

- It involves fast motor reflexes such as quick, unconscious movements.

- Acting as an information superhighway by way of connecting the brain and the body,
any damage to it could lead to paralysis.

Peripheral Nervous System

- It consist collection of nerves connecting the CNS to all organ systems.

- It makes use of sensory neurons to detect stimuli inside and outside of the body,
and motor neurons to carry signals from CNS to body organs.

- Humans have 12 cranial nerves that are attached to the brain. Cranial nerves are
found in the head, neck, and facial regions.
- Humans have also 31 pairs of spinal nerves.

PNS is divided into autonomic nervous system and somatic nervous system.

Autonomic nervous system – controls bodily functions that are involuntary.

Two divisions of autonomic nervous system:

Parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system – it maintains stability in the body by working
against each other to keep body activities in balance.

PNS stimulates skeletal muscles under conscious control of body movements via the Somatic
Nervous System.

Spinal reflexes are extremely rapid such that they involve the spinal cord and the PNS, but not the
brain.

Your senses help you gather information from the surroundings and perceive stimuli. You are aware
of what is happening inside your body and the outside world because of specialized neurons, known
as receptors.

Sense organs are structures that carry messages about your surroundings to the CNS.

Senses are divided into categories: general and special

General senses – most receptors that are scattered throughout your body. It is divided into two
groups: somatic and visceral.

Somatic senses – gathers information about the body and the environment whereas visceral senses
provide information about internal organs. It responds to heat, pressure, and pain.

Special senses – responds to light, smell, or chemicals.

Sense receptors covey information to the CNS following a four-way process:

1. Stimulation – starts with a physical stimulus activating a sensory receptor

2. Transduction – converts the stimulus into an action potential
3. Transmission – when nerve impulses are conducted to the CNS. Interpretation – when brain
creates a perception.