- Nucleic acids are the components of our nuclear material (Chromosomes) present in the cells.
- Nucleic acids are also ingested from food like herring, mackerel etc.
- These nucleic acids are digested and metabolized in the digestive tract (small intestine) by a series of enzymes which are present in the pancreatic juice and intestinal juices.
- The enzymes include endonucleases,nucleotidases and nucleosidases.
A. Pancreatic juice: It contains two nucleases (endonucleases):
1. Deoxyribonuclease (DNase): It splits or breaks down DNA into its component deoxyribonucleotides.
DNA —————>Deoxyribonucleotides
2. Ribonuclease (RNase): It splits or breaks down RNA into its component ribonucleotides.
RNA ————> Ribonucleotides
B. Intestinal juice: It contains two types of enzymes for the hydrolysis of nucleotides.
1. Nucleotidases:
- They are also known as nucleophosphatases.
- They break the nucleotides (deoxyribonucleotides and ribonucleotides) into nucleosides (deoxyribonucleosides and riboncleosides) and inorganic phosphates.
Nucleotides ————–> Nucleosides + Inorganic phosphates
2. Nucleosidases:
- These split the nucleosides (deoxyribonucleosides and ribonucleosides) into nitrogenous bases (purines and pyrimidines) and pentose sugars (deoxyribose and ribose).
Nucleosides ———–> Nitrogenous bases + Pentose sugars
- The end products of the nucleic acid digestion are pentose sugars, nitrogen bases and inorganic phosphates.