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Catechol Oxidase Reaction

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Members of two groups had designed their experiment on the effect of temperature on catechol oxidase reactions. The graph that was interpreted for this discussion is as above (Figure 6). The independent variable for this experiment was temperature, and the dependent variable was the absorbance of benzoquinone. The first data set in Figure 6 showed that an increase in temperature resulted in a gradually higher absorbance of benzoquinone until the temperature reached 55° C in which the absorbance dramatically dropped. As the temperature went from cold ice to room temperature 55° C, the absorbance of benzoquinone also increased from 0.07 Au to 0.22 Au. This was due to the fact that higher temperature can increase the kinetic energy of particles (Reece et al., 2011). In this case, the temperature was initially cold, and the catechol substrate molecules and enzyme molecules were moving in a slow motion. These particles would collide less frequently; as a result, less absorbance of benzoquinone displayed. When the temperature increased to a room …show more content…

However, the second set of data was displayed differently from the first set of data as shown above because the absorbance of benzoquinone did not show a trend of decrease (Figure 6). In figure 6, the optimal temperature for the enzyme, catechol oxidase, was at boiling because the absorbance of the benzoquinone increased to the highest. In general, the catechol oxidase enzyme’s optimal temperature is about 35° C to 40° C (Reece et al., 2011), so the second set of data was not likely to happen. The reason that caused the enzyme not to denature at a boiling temperature because of the experimental equipment errors. Members of the group might not be able to control the temperature well, or the catechol oxidase enzyme failed at the room temperature before it was used for the

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