BIOL 103 Chapter Notes -Ford Power Stroke Engine, Chitin, Plasmolysis
25 Feb 2013
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Herbivores do not have cellulase to digest cellulose. Rely on microbes living within their digestive tracts to digest the cellulose. Microbes break down the cellulose into monosaccharides that can be absorbed along with other by-produce of digestion. Ruminants have complex stomachs consisting of several chambers, beginning with three outpouchings of the lower esophagus collectively referred to the forestomach. Forestomach composed of rumen, reticulum, and omasum. Omasum absorbs some of the water and salts released from the chewed and partially digested food. Tough, partially digested food (the cud) is occasionally regurgitated, rechewed, and swallowed again. Partially digested food, microbes, and the by-products of microbinal digestion reach the true stomach, the abomasum. Abomasum contains the acid and proteolytic enzymes typical of other vertebrate stomachs. After the abomasum, materials pass intestine to complete digestion and absorption. Some microbes remain in the rumen and quickly multiply to replenish their population. Digestion products get absorbed across the epithelial cells and enter the blood.
