Introduction Enzymes are catalysts that help promote chemical reactions by integrating or breaking apart biological molecules. Most metabolic processes in the cell need enzymes to occur at rates quick enough to sustain life. Because enzymes are particular with what substances they choose to speed up, they only affect a tiny percentage of all the possible reactions. The group of enzymes made in a cell determine which metabolic pathway is selected. Enzymes are critical to the human body, specifically the body’s metabolism system. The metabolic system is a long series of continuous chemical reactions, and these catalysts boost efficiency and effect (Audesirk, Byers 99-102). Every enzyme affects a particular and specific part of the system, and …show more content…
We compared the amount of catalase in avocados and cantaloupes through the catalase reaction rate. We extracted enzymes, and tested rates of reaction with different levels of substrate strengths. The fruit with the faster rate of reaction proves which has more catalase; avocados or cantaloupes (Christianson 49-55). Because of our previous lab test with the potatoes, we believed that the closer the fruit or vegetable was to the ground, the more catalase it would have. With this idea in mind, the hypothesis we formed was that cantaloupe, as it grows closer to the ground, would possess more catalase than avocado, creating a faster reaction rate in the …show more content…
We created solutions of different concentrations of the substrate, hydrogen peroxide. The concentrations included 0%, which was 4 mL of plain water, .125%, .25%, .5%, 1%, 3%, and 6% hydrogen peroxide. To keep outside factors, such as temperature, from affecting the results of the enzymatic rate of reaction, we kept the two enzyme solutions in ice, and had each of the substrate solutions in room temperature. The 0% substrate solution acted as the control group, measuring what happens with the filter paper if there is no substrate. The rate of reaction was measured by taking bits of the same size Whatman #1 filter paper, by using a hole punch, dipping it in the enzyme solution for two seconds, letting the excess soak into a paper towel, and putting the paper into the substrate solutions. As the filter paper first touched the water, we started timing to measure how long it would take for the paper to lift from the bottom of the glass. We did this with both the cantaloupe and avocado, twice each, to have two trials for each percentage of each solution. We then took the average of both tests and found the rate of reaction by dividing one over the average of the rate of reaction for each
You may have observed the reaction of naturally-occurring catalase in tissue from either liver of potato. Design an experiment to determine if the amount of catalase varies from tissue to tissue (e.g. 200 g of liver compared to 200 g of potato).
This experiment looked at how substrate concentration can affect enzyme activity. In this case the substrate was hydrogen peroxide and the enzyme was catalase. Pieces of meat providing the catalase were added to increasing concentrations of hydrogen peroxide in order to measure the effect of hydrogen peroxide concentrations on the enzyme’s activity. The variable measured was oxygen produced, as water would be too difficult to measure with basic equipment.
The use of multiple test tubes and Parafilm was used for each experiment. Catechol, potato juice, pH 7 phosphate buffer, and stock potato extract 1:1 will be used to conduct the following experiments: temperature effect on enzyme activity, the effect of pH on enzyme action, the effect of enzyme concentration, and the effect of substrate concentration on enzyme activity. For the temperature effect on enzyme activity, three test tube were filled with three ml of pH 7 phosphate buffer and each test tube was labels 1.5 degrees Celsius, 20 °C, and 60 °C. The first test tube was placed in an ice-water bath, the second test tube was left at room temperature, and the third test tube was placed in approximately 60°C of warm water. After filling the test tubes with three ml of the
Of the many functions of proteins, catalysis is by far the most vital. When catalysis is not present, most reactions in the biological systems take place very slowly to produce at an adequate pace for metabolising organism. The catalysts that take this role are called enzymes. Enzymes are the most efficient catalysts; they can enhance rate of reaction by up to 1020 over uncatalysed reactions. (Campbell et al, 2012).
The role of an enzyme is to catalyse reactions within a cell. The enzyme present in a potato (Solanum Tuberosum) is catechol oxidase. In this experiment, the enzyme activity was tested under different temperature and pH conditions. The objective of this experiment was to determine the ideal conditions under which catechol oxidase catalyses reactions. In order to do this, catechol was catalyzed by catechol oxidase into benzoquinone at diverse temperatures and pH values. The enzyme was exposed to its new environment for 5 minutes before the absorbance of the catechol oxidase was measured at 420 nm using a spectrophotometer. The use of a spectrophotometer was crucial for the collection of data in this experiment. When exposed to hot and cold temperatures, some enzymes were found to denature causing the activity to decrease. Similarly, when the pH was too high or low, then the catechol oxidase enzyme experienced a significant decrease in activity. It can be concluded after completing this experiment that the optimal pH for catechol oxidase is 7 and that the prime temperature is 20º C. Due to the fact that the catechol oxidase was only tested under several different temperatures and pH values, it is always possible to get a more precise result by decreasing the increments between the test values. However, our experiment was able to produce accurate results as to the
Introduction: Starting out with some background information, I know that enzymes are biological catalysts. The enzyme that I used for this experiment was potato juice. Enzymes make reaction rates go faster. They lower activation energy, making chemical reactions. Temperature has an effect on canola cultivars. The higher temperature decreased stem diameter, but room temperature had thicker stems. So I believe the same will happen for the catechol oxidase; the solution will react faster at room temperature. Other enzymes can also have different effects such as the enzyme in cattle serum. The enzyme lost activity in room temperature. With that being said room temperature can also be detrimental with specific enzymes. Fungus also
Lab six requires students to observe the effects of pH and enzyme concentration on catecholase activity. Enzymes are organic catalysts that can affect the rate of a chemical reaction depending on the pH level and the concentration of the enzyme. As pH comes closer to a neutral pH the enzyme is at its greatest effectiveness. Also at the absorbance of a slope of 0.0122 the enzyme is affected greatly. The pH effect on enzymes can be tested by trying each pH level with a pH buffer of the same pH as labeled as the test tube and 1mL of potato juice, water, and catechol. This is all mixed together and put in the spectrophotometer to test how much is being absorbed at 420nm. As the effect on enzyme concentration can be tested almost the same way. This part of the exercise uses different amounts of pH 7-phosphate buffer and potato juice, and 1mL of catechol mixed together in a test tube. Each substance is put in the spectrophotometer at a wavelength set tot 420nm. The results are put down for every minute up to six minutes to see how enzyme concentration affects reaction rate. The results show that the pH 8 (0.494) affects the enzyme more than a pH of 4 (0.249), 6 (0.371), 7 (0.456), and 10 (0.126). Also the absorbance is greatest at a slope of 0.0122 with test tube C that has more effect on the reaction rate, than test tube A, B, and D.
The null hypothesis for the first experiment was that substrate concentration would have no effect on the reaction rate. It was hypothesized that the reaction rate would increase with rising substrate concentrations, until all active sites were bound. The null hypothesis for the second experiment was that temperature would not have an effect on reaction rates. It was hypothesized that until the enzyme is denatured, as temperature increased, so would the reaction rate.
The aim of my investigation is to see how pH affects the activity of potato tissue catalase, during the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide to produce water and oxygen.
Catechol, in the presence of oxygen is oxidized by catechol oxidase to form benzoquinone (Harel et al., 1964). Bananas and potatoes contain catechol oxidase that acts on catechol which is initially colorless and converts it to brown (Harel et al., 1964). In this experiment, the effect of pH on the activity of catechol oxidase was conducted using buffers ranging from pH2 to pH10. Two trials were conducted due to the first trial results being altered by an external factor. The results were acquired by taking readings every 2 minutes for 20 minutes from a spectrophotometer and then recorded on to the table. The data collected in the table were then made into graphs to illustrate the influence of pH on the catechol oxidase catalyzed reaction. After analysis, the data revealed that pH did have a significant influence on the enzyme as recorded by absorbance per minute. However, the data was collected was not accurate due to external factors, thus the results are debatable and should be experimented again for validation.
Enzymes are a key aspect in our everyday life and are a key to sustaining life. They are biological catalysts that help speed up the rate of reactions. They do this by lowering the activation energy of chemical reactions (Biology Department, 2011).
Enzymes are high molecular weight molecules and are proteins in nature. Enzymes work as catalysts in biochemical reactions in living organisms. Enzyme Catecholase is found on in plants, animals as well as fungi and is responsible for the darkening of different fruits. In most cases enzymatic activities are influenced by a number of factors, among them is temperature, PH, enzyme concentration as well as substrate concentration (Silverthorn, 2004). In this experiment enzyme catecholase was used to investigate the effects of PH and enzyme concentration on it rate of reaction. A pH buffer was used to control the PH, potato juice was used as the substrate and water was used as a solvent.
Proteins are one of the key biomolecules that make up the human body and facilitate different processes and reactions in the body (Silverthorn, 2016). Proteins exist in every cell in the human body and there are many different types of proteins with specialized functions that are necessary to maintain homeostasis (Silverthorn, 2016). Enzymes are a type of protein that performs like catalysts in the cells and start specific reactions (Ira, 2009).Catalysts start or increase the rate at
The enzyme catechol oxidase, extracted from masticated potato (Solanum tuberosum) lowers activation energy, as it is a catalyst. This enzyme can react with catechol to produce benzoquinone and water. Catechol oxidase is tested against a multitude of phosphate buffers, acidic, neutral and basic pH values, and chilled temperatures to hot temperatures. The purposes of these testes were to determine the optimal temperature and pHs at which catechol oxidase performs at. The method to measure results was the usage of a spectrophotometer (Vernier Spectrouis Plus). The spectrophotometer measures the absorbance levels of the pigment excreted when catechol oxidase undergoes a reaction. The high the absorbance, the more products produced and vise versa. The highest absorbance for the catechol oxidase submitted to different temperatures measured an average 0.6018 nm, when at 20 C. The highest absorbance for the catechol oxidase submitted to different pH values measured two averages of 0.658 at pH 6 and 0.6464 at pH 7. The conclusion taken from the available data explains that the optimal pH for catechol oxidase was between pH 6 and 7 and the optimal temperature was at room temperature at 20C.
This experiment is designed to analyze how the enzyme catalase activity is affected by the pH levels. The experiment has also been designed to outline all of the directions and the ways by which the observation can be made clearly and accurately. Yeast, will be used as the enzyme and hydrogen peroxide will be used as a substrate. This experiment will be used to determine the effects of the concentration of the hydrogen peroxide versus the rate of reaction of the enzyme catalase.