Assimilation (biology) facts for kids
Assimilation in biology is a cool process! It's how living things, like you, plants, and animals, take in nutrients and turn them into useful stuff for their cells. Think of it as your body's way of building and fueling itself from the food you eat.
There are two main steps to assimilation. First, your body gets the nutrients from food. Second, it changes those nutrients into forms your cells can actually use.
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How Animals Assimilate Nutrients
For animals, the first step is eating and digesting food. When you eat, your body breaks down food into tiny pieces. This happens in two ways:
- Physical breakdown: This is like chewing your food or your stomach churning it around.
- Chemical breakdown: Special chemicals called enzymes and acids in your stomach and intestines break down the food even more.
After food is broken down, the useful parts are absorbed into your bloodstream. Your blood then carries these nutrients all around your body.
The second step happens when these absorbed nutrients reach your cells. Your liver plays a big role here. It chemically changes many substances in your bloodstream. This makes them ready for your cells to use for energy, growth, and repair. Different cells can also make their own special changes to these nutrients.
How Plants Assimilate Nutrients
Plants also assimilate nutrients, but they do it differently from animals. They don't eat food in the same way we do!
Photosynthesis
One of the most important ways plants assimilate is through Photosynthesis. This is how plants make their own food! They use:
- Carbon dioxide from the air.
- Water from the soil.
- Sunlight for energy.
They turn these simple ingredients into complex organic molecules, like sugars, inside their plant cells. These sugars are the plant's food and energy source.
Nitrogen Fixation
Another key way plants assimilate is by getting nitrogen from the soil. Nitrogen is super important for plants to grow.
- Some plants, like those in the Leguminaceae (think peas and beans), have a special relationship with tiny bacteria.
- These symbiotic bacteria live in the roots of the plants.
- They can take nitrogen gas from the air in the soil and turn it into a form the plant can use to build proteins and other important molecules.
Related pages
See also
In Spanish: Asimilación (biología) para niños
