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Challenge: Using a total of only five organs design a digestive system that can absorb the maximum number of Calories from the apple. Describe your system below. __

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Challenge: Using a total of only five organs design a digestive system that can absorb the maximum number of Calories from the apple. Describe your system below. __

Challenge: Using a total of only five organs design a digestive system that can absorb the
maximum number of Calories from the apple. Describe your system below.
__

Solution

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HarrietMaster · Tutor for 5 years

Answer

This digestive system prioritizes efficient calorie extraction from an apple using five specialized organs:

1. **The Grinder (Mechanical and Chemical Breakdown):** This organ combines the functions of teeth, a muscular stomach, and initial chemical digestion. It mechanically pulverizes the apple into a fine pulp while simultaneously secreting enzymes like amylase and pectinase. Amylase breaks down starches into simpler sugars, while pectinase targets the pectin holding apple cells together, maximizing surface area for subsequent digestion.

2. **The Nutrient Extractor (Absorption I):** This organ resembles a small intestine with an extremely high surface area due to densely packed, long villi and microvilli. It focuses on absorbing simple sugars released by the Grinder. Transporter proteins specific to glucose, fructose, and sucrose line the villi, ensuring rapid uptake into the "bloodstream."

3. **The Fiber Dissolver (Microbial Fermentation):** This organ functions like a specialized cecum/large intestine, housing a dense and diverse microbiome specifically adapted to fermenting apple fiber. The microbes break down cellulose and other complex carbohydrates, releasing short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) like acetate, propionate, and butyrate, which are valuable energy sources.

4. **The SCFA Harvester (Absorption II):** This organ acts as a second absorption site, specifically designed to uptake the SCFAs produced by the Fiber Dissolver. It has a high surface area and specialized transporters for these fatty acids, ensuring efficient calorie capture from the fermented fiber.

5. **The Waste Compactor (Elimination):** This organ efficiently compacts and eliminates the remaining indigestible material, minimizing the energy expenditure on waste processing. It focuses on water reabsorption to prevent dehydration.

This five-organ system maximizes calorie extraction by:

* **Maximizing surface area:** Both the Nutrient Extractor and SCFA Harvester have extensive surface areas for efficient absorption.
* **Specialized enzymes and transporters:** Targeted enzymes and transporters ensure rapid breakdown and uptake of specific nutrients.
* **Efficient fiber fermentation:** The Fiber Dissolver and SCFA Harvester work together to extract calories from otherwise indigestible fiber.
* **Minimized waste processing:** The Waste Compactor reduces energy expenditure on waste elimination.

This system is specifically designed for apples, exploiting their particular composition of sugars and fiber for optimal calorie extraction.
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