Assignment No.

Submitted To:

DR. Mirza Abdul Qayyum

Submitted By:

Mazhar Fareed

Reg No:

2017-uam-219

Course Title:

Introduction to Insect Morphology

Course Code:

ENT-501

Institute of Plant Protection, MNSUAM

Q: Absorption of nutrients in alimentary canal ?

Alimentary canal

The alimentary canal for an insect is simply the digestive

system. It is the “tube”, or canal, that the food goes through to
have its nutrients absorbed. In an insect, the alimentary canal is
divided up into 3 main parts: the stomodeum (foregut), the
mesenteron (midgut), and the proctodeum (hindgut).

There are primarily three components present in food

Carbohydrates

DIGESTION OF
CARBOHYDRATES
 Carbohydrates are the most abundant class of organic compounds

found in living organisms. They originate as products of

photosynthesis, an endothermic reductive condensation of carbon

dioxide requiring light energy and the pigment chlorophyll.

 n CO2 + n H2O + energy CnH2nOn + n O2

o As noted here, the formulas of many carbohydrates can be written

as carbon hydrates, Cn

(H2O)n

, hence their name.

o Carbohydrates are called saccharides or, if they are relatively

small, sugars.

Glucose

• Carbohydrates have been given non-systematic names, although

the suffix ose is generally used.

• The most common carbohydrate is glucose (C6H12O6

). Applying

the terms defined above, glucose is a monosaccharide, an

aldohexose and a reducing sugar.

In both insects the foregut was the chief site
of carbohydrate digestion. in Cybister, glucose was absorbed by
the anterior midgut; in grasshoppers, gastric caeca was the site
of absorption of glucose and fructose. Amino acids
were absorbed by the pos- terior midgut region in both insects.

Carbohydrates are generally absorbed as monosaccharides

(glucose, fructose, etc.), so disaccharides and polysaccharides in
food require digestion. Starch and glycogen, the main storage
polysaccharides of plants and animals, respectively, are digested
by amylases that hydrolyze a-1,4- glucosidic linkages. There
may be separate endo- and exo-amylases, acting on starch
internally or terminally. Other common carbohydrases are the a-
glucosidases and b-glucosidases, which hydrolyze specific
disaccharides and oligosaccharides.

Proteins
Protein digestion was first initiated in the foregut of both insects
and completed in the midgut. Amino acids were absorbed by the
posterior midgut region in both insects. The feeding habits of
both insects had no influence on the determination of sites of
digestion and absorption.
The digestion of proteins involves endopeptidases,which attack
peptide bonds within the protein molecule, and exopeptidases,
which remove the terminal amino acids from the molecule
Within these general categories, the enzymes areclassified
according to the nature of their active sites and the sites at which
they cleave protein molecules. Three types of endoproteases
have been demonstrated in insects: serine protease which have
serine at the active site; cysteine proteases, including the B and
L families of cathepsins, with cysteine residues at the active site;
and aspartic (carboxyl) proteases with aspartate residues at the
active sites. The exopeptidases are metalloproteases and fall into
two categories: carboxypeptidases that attack peptides from the
–COOH end, and aminopeptidases that attack the chain from the
–NH2 end.

Lipids
Overview of lipid metabolism in insects. Lipids are digested at
the midgut lumen and absorbed and metabolized by midgut
cells. Then, they are transported in the hemolymph by
lipophorin to fat body and oocytes, where they are stored
The enzymes mediating lipid digestion of insects are lipases .
These enzymes cleave the carboxylester linkages in
triacylglycerols (TAGs), diacylglycerols (DAGs), galactolipids
and phospholipids. Lipolysis occurs predominantly in the
proximal midgut of most insects, yielding free fatty acids,
glycerol, partial acylglycerols and lysophospholipids, which are
absorbed into the midgut cells. (Lysophospholipids are
phospholipids in which one of the two O-acyl groups at
positions