Determining Optimal pH for Tyrosinase-Catechol Reaction Rates
Department of Biology, Swarthmore College
Abstract
The environmental conditions in which an enzyme is in heavily influence the rate at which it catalyzes reactions. Tyrosinase is an enzyme common in animals and plants, and is responsible for the pigmentation of skin and browning in plants. We measured the enzymatic reaction rate of tyrosinase in pH of 4,6 and 8 by assaying catechol’s transformation into ortho-quinone and used a spectrometer to measure the absorption of light and color over time. Enzyme and substrate were independently used on the spectrometer for each pH as a control for absorption value. The data shows that the enzymatic react rate of tyrosinase, calculated using the rate of change of absorbance over time, was highest at pH 8 and lowest at 4, meaning that tyrosinase is less efficient in acidic environments.
Introduction
Biological functions are supported by a variety of controlled and optimized chemical reactions. Proteins called enzymes serve as biological mediators to these chemical reactions by lowering the activation energy required for the reaction. The rate at which enzymes react is influenced by environmental factors like pH level and temperature, substrate and enzyme concentration. Therefore to optimize the speed at which biological functions essential to life occur, it is essential to understand how environmental conditions affect the activity levels of enzymes.
Tyrosinase is an
On the biochemical level, enzymes work at precise temperatures and pH levels. When the temperature goes up, enzyme activity speeds up. When temperatures decrease, enzyme activity slows down. If an enzyme is at too high of a temperature, it stops functioning. Stomach enzymes function in a more
• Fourthly, we kept the temperature at a constant 25°C using a water bath. At low temperatures, an increase in temperature causes an exponential increase in enzyme activity. This is because an increase in temperature provides more kinetic energy for the collisions of enzymes and substrates, so
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.
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 types of proteins that work as a substance to help speed up a chemical reaction (Madar & Windelspecht, 104). There are three factors that help enzyme activity increase in speed. The three factors that speed up the activity of enzymes are concentration, an increase in temperature, and a preferred pH environment. Whether or not the reaction continues to move forward is not up to the enzyme, instead the reaction is dependent on a reaction’s free energy. These enzymatic reactions have reactants referred to as substrates. Enzymes do much more than create substrates; enzymes actually work with the substrate in a reaction (Madar &Windelspecht, 106). For reactions in a cell it is
As stated in the introduction, three conditions that may affect enzyme activity are salinity, temperature, and pH. In experiment two, we explored how temperature can affect enzymatic activity. Since most enzymes function best at their optimum temperature or room temperature, it was expected that the best reaction is in this environment. The higher the temperature that faster the reaction unless the enzyme is denatured because it is too hot. Similarly, pH and salinity can affect enzyme activity.
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
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.
Introduction: Enzymes are protein catalysts facilitating the conversion of substrates into products (Alexander and Peters, 2011). They go through a whole chemical reaction which starts off with the substrate and then ends up with a product. The only way this reaction can be adjusted or not even work is if they end up going through some sort of affect which only temperature and pH levels can do determining the environment. When enzymes are in an environment that is too acidic or alkaline, their chemical properties, sizes and shapes can become altered (Magher, 2015) Chemical modification of proteins is widely used as a too; to maintain a native conformation, improving stability (Rodriguez-Cabrera, Regalado, and Garcia-Almendarez, 2011) In this experiment, four trials were conducted and recorded every 15 seconds for 5 minutes in order to calculate the optimum levels and IRV.
In the following experiments we will measure precise amounts of potato extract as well as Phenylthiourea, combined with or without deionized water and in some instances change the temperature and observe and record the reaction. We will also investigate the different levels of prepared pH on varying samples of the potato extract and the Phenylthiourea and record the results. We will answer question such as what is the best temperature for optimum temperature reaction as well as the best pH level for the same reaction.
In the experiment we used Turnip, Hydrogen Peroxide, Distilled Water, and Guaiacol as my substances. On the first activity, Effect of Enzyme concentration of Reaction Rate for low enzyme concentration, we tested three concentrations of the turnip extract, and hydrogen peroxide. For the Turnip Extract I used 0.5 ml, 1.0 ml, and 2.0 ml. For hydrogen peroxide we used 0.1 ml, 0.2 ml, and 0.4 ml. We used a control to see the standard, and used a control for each enzyme concentration used. The control contains turnip extract and the color reagent, Guaiacol. We prepared my substrate tubes separately from the enzyme tubes. My substrate tube
The purpose of this experiment was to record catalase enzyme activity with different temperatures and substrate concentrations. It was hypothesized that, until all active sites were bound, as the substrate concentration increased, the reaction rate would increase. The first experiment consisted of five different substrate concentrations, 0.8%, 0.4%, 0.2%, 0.1%, and 0% H2O2. The second experiment was completed using 0.8% substrate concentration and four different temperatures of enzymes ranging from cold to boiled. It was hypothesized that as the temperature increased, the reaction rate would increase. This would occur until the enzyme was denatured. The results from the two experiments show that the more substrate concentration,
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
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.
The objective of the lab was to examine the effects of environmental variables on the functions of an enzyme. To the point, an experiment was conducted to test the effect of pH on the function of the enzyme Amylase.