Lactase Enzyme Lab Report Essay

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.

Enzymes are biological catalysts, which speed up the rate of reaction without being used up during the reaction, which take place in living organisms. They do this by lowering the activation energy. The activation energy is the energy needed to start the reaction.

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.

Organisms cannot rely entirely on spontaneous reactions to produce all the materials necessary for life. These reactions occur much too slowly. To produce these materials quicker, cells rely on enzymes, biological catalysts, to speed up these reactions without being consumed. (General Biology I, Martineau, Dean, Gilliland, & Soderstrom, Lab Manual, 2017, 43). To produce these materials quicker, the activation reaction much be lowered, a very important part of this lab. Each enzyme acts on a specific molecule, or set of molecules, called a substrate (43). The enzyme binds to this substrate, forming an enzyme-substrate complex. An enzyme is a protein whose structure is determined by the sequence of amino acids groups that

Changes in temperature and pH along with Substrate Concentration and Enzyme Concentration were the conditions tested in the experiment.

We then tested the last set of test tubes containing milk and lactase, we did this to find which ones would present the most glucose concentration results, when placed in different temperatures, 4°C, boiling and room temperature. What we wanted to know was how far temperature could affect lactase to perform its enzymatic activity. We hypothesized that if the lactase is placed in a high or low temperature outside its active range, the temperatures would have a negative impact on the functions of the enzyme. If the temperature has an affect on lactose then we would see some temperatures in which lactase will be function able. We came to a conclusion that enzymes work at a temperature that is closest to body temperature (25°C); boiling water (100°C) denatures the enzyme, while the enzyme is not able to function properly if

INTRODUCTION: Enzymes are catalysts that speed up reactions by lowering activation energy. Activation energy is the amount of energy needed for a reaction to take place. Enzymes act on substrates which bind to the enzymes’ active site. The enzyme changes its shape to accommodate the substrate which creates the new product. Furthermore, there are optimal conditions which will allow the enzymes to function at its highest rate. These opyimal conditions include temperature, pH levels, and the concentration of the enzyme (Fox, 2013). If the environment is not suited for the enzymes’ optimal conditions then enzymatic reactions cannot occur at its highest rate or may not even react at all. For example, if the temperature is higher than the enzyme’s optimal temperature then the enzyme may become denatured.

Enzymes are an important type of protein in which proposes to speed up chemical reactions of substrate molecules. They are specific, each enzyme can only bind one substrate and control one reaction, an example of the following is maltase which works on only one maltose, they can be used multiple times. Each enzyme has an optimum temperature, below the temperature the enzyme will work slowly or become inactive, on the other hand, above the temperature the enzyme is denatured. In addition, each enzyme has an optimum PH, above or below this PH, the enzyme will work slowly or become inactive. If the body does not contain enzymes, reactions would be slow and the body will stop functioning. The enzyme activity is altered by changes in substrate concentration,

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).

Enzymes are proteins that are essential to our body because it acts as a catalase to speed up chemical reactions within the body using less energy. Enzyme is very specific, it works like a key and lock method by having the exact substrate binding to the enzyme’s active site. Even though enzyme can be reuse to a point that they are denatured. When something is denatured there shape become deform and no longer works. When enzyme doesn’t work our body reactions slows down to a point where it all stops together. All Enzymes reaches there optimal level before it slows down, enzyme also have a specific range of pH and temperature that they can function through. For instance the enzyme that is presented in the mouth can endure a pH around 7 while those in the stomach can endure a pH of 2.0 if the enzyme were to go to the wrong pace than they would become denatured because they can handle the accidences or the bases produced by the organs. Enzyme can also be denatured if they are exposing to extreme heat. As the temperature gets colder the rate of the enzyme will become less efficient and when it’s hotter the heat generate more kinetic energy for the enzyme and substrate making

In this experiment, the results identify the different temperatures that the lactase enzymes were most effective and ineffective at. At 0°, 1% of glucose was present in the milk meaning that the lacteeze enzymes were effective at the temperature but the reaction time of the enzymes were slower. At 40°, the milk contained the maximum amount of glucose at 2% or more. This indicates that at this temperature, the lacteeze enzymes work the most effective and they have the most amount of collisions which increases the reaction time and breaks down the lactose quicker. At 100°, there was no glucose present in the milk. This meant that all the lactase enzymes were denatured in the hot temperature and none of the lactose sugars were broken down.

An enzyme is a catalyst. Catalysts are known for speeding up the rate of reactions by lowering the activation energy of the biochemical reaction. (Reece et al., 2011)

Within a cell, enzymes are used as a catalyst to increase the rate of chemical reaction. They do not consume themselves, rather they help in increasing the rate of reaction. Within the body, enzymes vary depending on their specific functions. For instance, hydrogen peroxide is a toxic chemical, but it breaks down into harmless oxygen and water. This reaction can be sped up using the enzyme catalyst produced by yeast. Hydrogen peroxide is produced as a byproduct in cellular reaction, because it is poisonous and must be broken down, therefore this reaction is important. The speeding up of the reaction is shown below:

In the experiment, the two variables tested were the change in concentration of lactase enzyme precipitate in solution and the different pH values. The first hypothesis stated that as the concentration increased so would the absorption level. According to Figure 1 such is the case where as the total concentration of ONP increased, the absorption increased steadily in an all but linear fashion. This shows that an increased concentration of enzyme within a reaction, whether lactase or not, could mean increased activity and thus a

Enzymes are proteins that act as catalysts and help reactions take place. In short, enzymes reduce the energy needed for a reaction to take place, permitting a reaction to take place more easily. Some enzymes are shape specific and reduce the energy for certain reactions. Enzymes have unique folds of the amino acid chain which result in specifically shaped active sites (Frankova Fry 2013). When substrates fit in the active site of an enzyme, then it is able to catalyze the reaction. Enzyme activity is affected by the concentrations of the enzymes and substrate present (Worthington 2010). As the incidence of enzyme increases, the rate of reaction increases. Additionally, as the incidence of substrate increases so does the rate of reaction.