Question

Do Enzymes in the digestive tract catalyze hydrolysis reactions.

Answer 1

Splitting of a compound by water to individual molecules is called hydrolysis. When water molecule added to a compound, the water molecule is split into hydrogen cation or proton, and a hydroxyl anion and These components of water separate the compound into individual molecules. Food consist complex nutrients such as proteins, carbohydrates, nucleic acids and lipids among them except lipids all are polymers of monomeric units. Due to their large size, they will not be absorbed into the blood in order to absorb into blood These polymeric complex nutrients are first converted to simple substances which are diffusible by the process called digestion by various parts of the digestive system. The digestion process relies upon hydrolysis to allow the break down of all these complex nutrients of food. The enzymatic digestion of food is dependent on hydrolase enzymes produced by the cells associated with walls of the gut as well as digestive organs such as the pancreas. The digestive enzymes (e.g. amylase, lipase) which add the water molecules to the bonds that connect monomers of complex nutrients (e.g. peptide bonds connect the amino acids in proteins) cause their degradation into individual molecules. In digestive system through hydrolysis process proteases break peptide bonds of proteins in to individual amino acids, lipases cause the breakdown of fats into glycerol and fatty acids, pancreatic amylase break the glycosidic bonds of starch into individual sugar monomers and nucleases present in pancreatic juice cleaves the phosphodiester bonds present in the nucleic acids like DNA and RNA cleaved in to individual nucleotides by enzymatic hydrolysis processes.