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Tyrosinase Lab Report

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Discussion The objective of this lab was to observe the enzyme kinetics of Tyrosinase, both under normal conditions and under the influence of two different inhibitors. This required careful measurement and calibration of both lab equipment and reagent solutions. The first step was to obtain the optimized volume (also concentration) of Tyrosinase (partial data shown, calculation shown), determined by monitoring the absorbance of a protein solution (Figure 6 & 11) and using a simple equation to solve for the amount of Tyrosinase that obtained a slope of .1 to .15. The optimized volume added was 33 μL (Figure 11). This ensured that the subsequent enzymatic reactions would occur at the correct rate for best observation. Following the optimization of Tyrosinase, the normal enzymatic activity was observed with L & D-DOPA. The objective of this step was to obtain the Km and Vmax of each enzymatic reaction. By obtaining and plotting the spectrophotometric data, the Lineweaver-Burk plot was used to calculate both the Km and Vmax for each substrate-enzyme reaction. The substrate L-DOPA showed a Vmax of 2.9*〖10〗^(-4) μmol/min with Tyrosinase, and a Km of 2.17*〖10〗^(-4) μmol (Figure 17). On the other hand D-DOPA showed a Vmax of 4.14*〖10〗^(-4) μmol/min and a Km of 5.44*〖10〗^(-4) …show more content…

In order to be confident that the Cinnamic Acid reaction was an error, additional studies would need to be conducted in which the solution of enzyme, inhibitor, and substrate are carefully monitored. If this lab were to be repeated, a few things should be improved. Firstly, the mixture of all solutions should be kept very accurate and free of error. Second, all materials and components should be properly labeled at all times to prevent improper mixture. Lastly, the speed of spectrophotometric measurement (rate of adding the enzyme before measurement) should be improved to prevent loss of data and skewing of the Lineweaver-Burk

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