AP BIOLOGY STUDY GUIDE

DIGESTION, METABOLISM AND NUTRITION

1. List six classes of foods and the general use of each in the body.

2. In what two general ways must foods be changed during digestion?

3. List, in order, the divisions of the alimentary canal.

4. Discuss five or more ways in which the tongue is used.

5. Name the regions that can be distinguished in a tooth cut lengthwise.

6. Why is it especially important that you chew bread and potatoes thoroughly?

7. Suppose that a person has had a glass of milk (casein) and a sandwich consisting of bread (starch), butter (fat), and ham (protein). Tell what would happen to each of these foods as it underwent digestion.

8. Name two important functions of the large intestine.

9. Explain how a vitamin deficiency is possible even if an adequate amount of all the vitamins is taken daily.

10. Define BMR and give two ways in which it can be measured.

11. One of the greatest evolutionary changes in the process of digestion was the advent of extracellular digestion. Do fungi carry out extracellular digestion? What advantage does a vertebrate digestive system have over the digestive process of a fungus?

12. Many birds possess crops, although few mammals do. Suggest a reason for this difference.

13. Humans obtain vitamin K from symbiotic bacteria living in their gastrointestinal tract. Many bacteria also produce ascorbic acid, vitamin C. Can you suggest a reason why people have not evolved a symbiotic relationship with bacteria that would result in their obtaining bacterial vitamin C?

14. Many proteolytic enzymes are synthesized in the pancreas and released into the duodenum. Since this is the case, why do mammalian digestive systems go to the trouble of producing pepsin in the stomach? What does pepsin do that the others do not?

15. Why is food acid in the stomach and alkaline in the small intestine?

16. Explain how interference with the rhythmic waves of the walls (peristalsis) of the large intestine may cause either constipation or diarrhea.

17. Why is it easier to digest sour milk than fresh milk?

18. What is the difference between metabolism and basal metabolism?

19. By what mechanisms might amino acids in the small intestine enter the epithelial cells of the villi?

20. Is the digestion of macromolecules a process that occurs only in the digestive tract? Explain.

21. How do cells that secrete extracellular enzymes avoid self-digestion?

22. Do any filter feeders live on land? Explain.