Question

Describe in detail how enzymes function to digest protein in the alimentary canal.

Answer 1

In the alimentary canal, the digestion of protein mainly takes place in the stomach and the small intestine. There is a variety of enzyme that helps in the digestion of these proteins.

The digestive glands that are present in the stomach are also known as gastric glands and they secrete gastric juices which are acidic in nature. Pepsinogen is an enzyme which gets converted into pepsin in presence of HCL and Prorenin is inactivated which also gets converted into the Rennin. It is an active form of the enzymes and the proteins are digested to form polypeptides and oligopeptides.

The intestinal glands secrete the intestinal juices which convert the polypeptides into an amino acid. It also has the enzyme trypsinogen which is inactive and enterokinase acts on it to convert it into trypsin which further helps in the protein digestion.