The Importance of Enzymes in Plants and Animals Essay

For enzymes to be useful in a reaction, the substrate needs to bind with the enzymes active site. The active site is specific for a

When the inhibitor binds with the enzyme's active site for a short space of time it is known as competitive inhibition because it is

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

[An active site can be altered by a non-competitive enzyme which encircles the enzyme and alters the shape of the active site which could be very dangerous.]

This would be a suitable independent variable as it would be easy to change ourselves. If the concentration of the substrate increases the faster the rate of reaction, as more hydrogen peroxide molecules can collide with catalase molecules, so more reactions will take place. As you increase the concentration of substrate this will continue to occur up to a point where all the active sites on the enzyme are being used.

These results show how temperature of extreme high, or low affects enzyme activity. The highest rate of enzyme activity occurred at 37 Cº. Anything that was hotter or cold than 37 Cº slowed the reaction rate. As I thought, 100 degrees would denature the enzyme, and that was the case. The data provided shows exactly what temperatures enzymes work best, and worst. The objective was achieved as we discovered the different reaction rates under different temperatures. The results are reliable, as we know enzymes do not work well when under extreme heat or denaturation occurs. What I learned in this experiment was that enzymes don’t work well under cold temperatures because they tend to move slower. My hypothesis did not quite match, because I thought they work best at lower temperatures.

The optimal temperature permits the utmost number of molecular collisions and the fastest alteration of the reactants to product molecules. Most human enzymes have an optimal temperature of about 35-40°C (close to body temperature 37°C).

The independent variable in this investigation is pH. Each individual enzyme has it’s own pH characteristic. This is because the hydrogen and ionic bonds between –NH2 and –COOH groups of the polypeptides that make up the enzyme, fix the exact arrangement of the active site of an enzyme. It is crucial to be aware of how even small changes in the

enable the substrate to bind to the enzyme and form the enzyme substrate complex and

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 catalysts. This means that they make biochemical reactions happen faster than they would otherwise. Sometimes the essential reactions would not happen at all without the help of enzymes. After each time the enzymes are ready to catalyze.

“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].

Substrate concentration increase will cause an increase in the rate of reaction, but, because a number of enzymes are fixed, the rate will go up at first and then become permanent, constant( horizontal), as more and more enzyme active sites will be filled

all them accomplish catalysis by lowering the activation energy for the reaction, thus allowing it to happen more easily. Enzymes have many specific shapes or conformations . Part of the conformation is the active site of the enzyme, where the actual catalysis occurs. The specific molecule or closely related molecules on which an enzyme functions is known as its substrate. Shape plays such an important role in enzymatic catalysis that often even isomers of a substrate will be rejected. Once the substrate enters the active site, it may begin a process known as induced fit in which the enzyme perfectly conforms to the molecule to allow for more efficient catalysis.

Enzymes are natural catalysts that work from the ability to increase the rate of reaction by decreasing the activation energy of a reaction. (Blanco, Blanco 2017) An enzyme can do this 10^8- to 10^10 fold, sometimes even 10^15 fold. (Malacinsk, Freifelder 1998) The substrate will momentarily bind with the enzyme making the enzyme-substrate complex, of which the shape of the substrate is complimentary to the shape of the active site on the enzyme it is binding with. There are two main theories as to how an enzymes and substrates interact, the lock-and-key model and induced fit theory. The lock-and-key model suggests that the enzyme has a specific shape that fits the substrate and only that substrate. The induced fit theory says the active site and substrate are able to change shape or distort for the reaction to take place with (Cooper,