Ecological Physiology of Diet and Digestive Systems

[Vetaqua]

William H. Karasov et al.
"Ecological Physiology of Diet and Digestive Systems"
Annu. Rev. Physiol. 2011. 73:69–93

Abstract
The morphological and functional design of gastrointestinal tracts of
many vertebrates and invertebrates can be explained largely by the interaction
between diet chemical constituents and principles of economic
design, both of which are embodied in chemical reactor models of gut
function.Natural selection seems to have led to the expression of digestive
features that approximately match digestive capacities with dietary
loads while exhibiting relatively modest excess. Mechanisms explaining
differences in hydrolase activity between populations and species
include gene copy number variations and single-nucleotide polymorphisms.
Inmany animals, both transcriptional adjustment and posttranscriptional
adjustment mediate phenotypic flexibility in the expression
of intestinal hydrolases and transporters in response to dietary signals.
Digestive performance of animals depends also on their gastrointestinal
microbiome. The microbiome seems to be characterized by large beta
diversity among hosts and by a common core metagenome and seems
to differ flexibly among animals with different diets.

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