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PPO Enzyme Lab

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For this lab, we first took the prepared PPO enzyme extract from our TA. The PPO extract was prepared by first washing, but not peeling a potato and then cutting it into small pieces (approximately .5cm square). They were weighed and data was recorded. The sample was homogenized in an equal volume of cold citrate-phosphate buffer (pH 4.8, 12.5 mM citrate, 25 mM phosphate) using a blender in 6 x 10 second bursts at high speed. This breaks down the potato cells, which are then poured through a double layer of cheesecloth to remove unground fragments. Lastly, the homogenate was squeezed out using gloves. The homogenate is then partially purified for our use. The extract was thawed but remained cold. The sample was mixed thoroughly by tapping the …show more content…

After we prepared the tubes, we added PPO extract and noted the change in color after 2 minutes had passed. In the next part of the lab experiment, we created serial dilutions using freshly cleaners test tubes. We created 1in 5, 1 in 10, 1 in 20, and 1 in 40 dilutions. The c1v1=c2v2 formula was used to calculate V1 prior to starting. Tube A was the only tube that had more than 5mL as its final volume. We turned the Spectrophotometer on and set the value for absorbance to 475nm. We allowed it to properly warm up for at least 15 minutes before we started using it. We prepared 8 clean test tubes to make reaction assay tubes with 4mL of buffer and .5ml of the enzyme in each tube. They were labeled 1 to 8 starting from the lowest concentration to the highest. Tubes 1,3,5 & 7 had .5 ml of buffer added instead to act as the control group. Meanwhile, tubes 2, 4,6 & 8 used .5ml of Dopa added instead. Before we began, we calculated the concentration of Dopa first. We measured the increase of the absorbance at 475 nm, which helped to determine the rate of the reactions. As the reaction was initiated, the absorbance values were read out loud while the other timed the reaction and recorded the measurement at 15 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes and 4 minutes

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