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Design Experiment

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Design Experiment: Enzyme Inhibitors.
Research question: What is the effect of adding lead nitrate solution on the activity of amylase enzyme?
Aim: To test the effect of adding nitrate solution on the activity of amylase.
Background Information:
Inhibitors are molecules which repress or prevent another molecule from engaging in a reaction. They are substances that attach themselves onto an enzyme and reduce or prevent the enzyme’s ability to catalyse reactions. Competitive Inhibitors are inhibitors that occupy the active site of an enzyme or the binding Site of a receptor and prevent the normal substrate or ligand from binding. An active site is a region on the surface of an enzyme to which substrates bind and which catalyzes a chemical …show more content…

This is because a greater mass of lead nitrate reduces the ability of the amylase to breakdown starch into maltose. Therefore lead nitrate acts as a non-competitive inhibitor reducing the enzyme’s ability to catalyse the reaction. Lead nitrate is non-competitive because it affects the enzyme’s activity even though it is present in small quantities. The hypothesis were proven since the lead nitrate changes the shape of the active site of the enzyme and prevents some starch molecules from binding to the active site for catalysts. According to the results obtained from the experiment, my hypothesis is accepted and is correct. My hypothesis was, “There is an inverse relationship between the mass of lead nitrate and the ability of amylase to convert starch into maltose.” Despite the results obtained were correct and proved that the experiment was a success a few variables emerged during the performance of the experiment that if improved could result to a more accurate result. We didn’t have enough time to do this experiment over and over again so we didn’t have enough results to compare. Another important factor that may have influenced in our experiment was the quantity taken of the lead nitrate. We didn’t have any colorimeter so our result might not be

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