Pepsin helps degrade proteins into which of the following components?

Pepsin is a digestive enzyme that plays a critical role in the breakdown of proteins in the stomach. It operates optimally in the acidic environment provided by gastric acid, which is essential for its activity. Pepsin specifically cleaves peptide bonds within proteins, resulting in smaller chains known as peptides and, ultimately, individual amino acids.

Proteins are polymers made up of long chains of amino acids, and the primary purpose of enzymes like pepsin is to facilitate the digestion of these polymers into their building blocks. As digesting proteins is important for nutrient absorption and overall health, pepsin's action leads to the production of peptides and amino acids, which can then be further broken down by other enzymes in the intestine, enabling the body to absorb and utilize them effectively.

The other choices do not relate to the function of pepsin; for instance, monosaccharides are the simplest form of carbohydrates, and fatty acids are the building blocks of lipids. Nucleotides are the components of nucleic acids, such as DNA and RNA. Thus, they are not relevant to the action of pepsin, further affirming that the correct answer centers on the degradation of proteins into peptides and amino acids.