Enzyme Lab Report

The more acidic a substance is the less oxygen it will produce when going through a chemical reaction. During the Lab “How Do Changes in pH Levels Affect Enzymes Activity”, the researcher conducted an experiment to test the effects that an acidic, neutral, and a base substance will have when combine it with hydrogen peroxide. The data table shows that HCL (acidic substance) barley produced any oxygen at all when it was combining with Hydrogen Peroxide. The pH level for HCL was 2.5; this level indicates that the substance was very acidic. When the H2O and NaOH were tested they produced more bubbles than HCL. NaoH produced a little more bubbles than HCL. The pH that NaoH produced was a 9, which is a base. H2O produced more bubbles than both substances;

The preparation for the experiment started by gathering the solutions of enzyme Peroxidase, substrate hydrogen peroxide, the indicator guaiacol and distilled water. Two small spectrometer tubes and three large test tubes with numbered labels. In addition, one test tube rack, one pipet pump and a box of kimwipes were also gathered. Before the experiment, the spectrometer must be set up to use by flipping the power switch to on. Following, the machine was warmed up for 10 minutes and the filter lever was moved to the left. In addition, I set the wavelength to 500 nm with the wavelength control knob. Before the experiment, I had to create the blank solution by pipetting 0.1 ml of guaiacol, 1.0 ml of turnip extract and 8.9 ml water into tube #1. Following the creation of the blank, a control 2% solution was created.

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

Students will be observing normal catalase reaction, the effect of temperature on enzyme activity, and the effect of pH on enzyme activity in this experiment. The enzymes will all around perform better when exposed in room temperature than when it is exposed to hot and cold temperatures. This is based on the fact that the higher the temperature, the better the enzymes will perform, but as the temperature reaches a certain high degree, the enzymes will start to denature, or lose their function.

The mole is a convenient unit for analyzing chemical reactions. Avogadro’s number is equal to the mole. The mass of a mole of any compound or element is the mass in grams that corresponds to the molecular formula, also known as the atomic mass. In this experiment, you will observe the reaction of iron nails with a solution of copper (II) chloride and determine the number of moles involved in the reaction. You will determine the number of moles of copper produced in the reaction of iron and copper (II) chloride, determine the number of moles of iron used up in the reaction of iron and copper (II) chloride, determine the ratio of moles of iron to moles of copper, and determine the number of atoms and formula units involved in

Background and Introduction: Enzymes are proteins that process substrates, which is the chemical molecule that enzymes work on to make products. Enzyme purpose is to increase the rate of activity and speed up chemical reaction in a form of biological catalysts. The enzymes specialize in lowering the activation energy to start the process. Enzymes are very specific in their process, each substrate is designed to fit with a specific substrate and the enzyme and substrate link at the active site. The binding of a substrate to the active site of an enzyme is a very specific interaction. Active sites are clefts or grooves on the surface of an enzyme, usually composed of amino acids from different parts of the polypeptide chain that are brought together in the tertiary structure of the folded protein. Substrates initially bind to the active site by noncovalent interactions, including hydrogen bonds, ionic bonds, and hydrophobic interactions. Once a substrate is bound to the active site of an enzyme, multiple mechanisms can accelerate its conversion to the product of the reaction. But sometimes, these enzymes fail or succeed to increase the rate of action because of various factors that limit the action. These factors can be known as temperature, acidity levels (pH), enzyme and/or substrate concentration, etc. In this experiment, it will be tested how much of an effect

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Hold the IKI spray bottle 25 - 30 cm away from the paper towel, and mist with the IKI solution.

Lactose is a sugar that can be put into smaller molecules, glucose and galactose. Lactose is when you are not able to digest milk and dairy meaning that the enzyme lactase that breaks down lactose is not functioning properly. ONPG was used as a substitute for lactase because even though it is colorless it helps show enzyme activity by turning yellow. This experiment measured the absorbance ONPG when exposed to lactase within an environment of different salinity’s. The enzyme, lactase, was obtained by crushing a lactaid pill and then was added into four cuvettes. ONPG and salt solution of different concentrations were added and their levels of absorption was measured by a spectrophotometer. The results showed that higher salt concentrations have a lower level of absorption. There were 4 cuvettes and within those cuvettes that solutions within them were being tested and the results showed the more salt solution added with the lactase the lower the absorbance. The less salt solution there was a higher rate of absorbance. The data supported the hypothesis that with increasing NaCl concentration there would be a decrease in enzyme activity.

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 proteins that have catalytic functions” [1], “that speed up or slow down reactions”[2], “indispensable to maintenance and activity of life”[1]. They are each very specific, and will only work when a particular substrate fits in their active site. An active site is “a region on the surface of an enzyme where the substrate binds, and where the reaction occurs”[2].

Organisms cannot depend solely on spontaneous reactions for the production of materials because they occur slowly and are not responsive to the organism's needs (Martineau, Dean, et al, Laboratory Manual, 43). In order to speed up the reaction process, cells use enzymes as biological catalysts. Enzymes are able to speed up the reaction through lowering activation energy. Additionally, enzymes facilitate reactions without being consumed (manual,43). Each enzyme acts on a specific molecule or set of molecules referred to as the enzyme's substrate and the results of this reaction are called products (manual 43). As a result, enzymes promote a reaction so that substrates are converted into products on a faster pace (manual 43). Most enzymes are proteins whose structure is determined by its sequence of its amino acids. Enzymes are designed to function the best under physiological conditions of PH and temperature. Any change of these variables that change the conformation of the enzyme will destroy or enhance enzyme activity(manual, 43).

A catalyst speeds up a reaction by lowering the activation energy that is used to start it. There are both organic and inorganic catalysts-one being an enzyme. An enzyme is an organic catalyst that speeds up the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed by the reaction. Enzymes are proteins, meaning that they have a unique structure that dictates what their function is. This unique structure also determines what substrate, or specific reactant, the enzyme will catalyze. From there, the substrate and enzyme bind together; which leads to the reactants being created.

Fruits and vegetables are very prone to enzyme browning caused by the enzyme polyphenol oxidase, or PPO when it reacts with oxygen. This browning occurs when the flesh of the fruit or vegetable is cut or bruised in anyway. This is most prominent in apples. The browning that occurs because of this enzyme is consider detrimental to both the aesthetic appeal and the overall taste of the apple. We were interested in determining if the rate at which this reaction occurs could be manipulated to speed it up or slow it down. We decided to test this by changing the pH at which the reactions took place.

For the enzyme experiment, I hypothesized that test tube number one would have the greatest amount of product. My lab partners and I believed that number one would have the most significant amount of product because it had the highest mL amount of the potato extract. The potato extract is the enzyme of the investigation being used which is catecholase (Picture 4). The substrate in the investigation is catechol (Picture 6), and the reddish-brown product is called benzoquinone (Figure 2). Enzymes are proteins that help the speeding up of chemical reactions. Enzymes will never destroy unless pH, salt, and temperature negatively affect it. When the enzyme is finished with one substrate, it moves on to another one directly after. According to the lab manual by Pearson (2011), substrates are the reactant molecules that are being changed by the enzyme. It is known that when the substance is an enzyme, it ends in letters “ase.” Substrates and enzymes have a lock and key relationship with one another. The key in the relationship is the substrate, and the lock in the relationship is the enzyme (Cap, 2016). An example of an enzyme and substrate relationship is sucrase and sucrose. The enzyme sucrase positions the sucrose, which is table salt, in a way that it can be broken down into the parts of glucose and fructose (Figure 1). The purpose of this