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The Effect Of Ph On The Rate Of Catecholase Catalyzed Reaction Essay

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The Influence of pH on the Rate of Catecholase-Catalyzed Reaction

Lab Session - 6

Prepared by: Yordanos Fente
Lab Partners: Ariana Page Cristy Farrar

Date Performed:11/01/2016
Date Submitted:11/15/2016

Prof. Ashley Bregman

Introduction Without enzymes the existence of life is questionable since all metabolic processes in the cell cannot occur at a faster rate enough to sustain life. All the essential biological reactions in living things depend on enzymes’ catalytic activity. Enzymes are usually proteins, though some Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) molecules act as enzymes too, that speed up the rate of biological reactions without being consumed by the reaction. (Reece,2016, p.83) For instance, the presence of enzymes in the conversion of DNA to RNA allows a reaction that would otherwise take millions of years to occur in milliseconds. Like all catalysts, enzymes accelerate the rate of reaction by lowering the activation energy that is the amount of energy that must be put in for the reaction to begin. (Reece,2016, p.83)
To catalyze a reaction, an enzyme will bind to one or more reactant molecules. These molecules are the enzyme 's substrates. The part of the enzyme where the substrate binds is called the active site. In enzymes that are proteins, the active site gets its properties from the amino acids it 's built out of. These amino acids may have side chains that are acidic or basic. The set of amino acids

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