The Effects and Influences of Enzymes Essay

Of the many functions of proteins, catalysis is by far the most vital. When catalysis is not present, most reactions in the biological systems take place very slowly to produce at an adequate pace for metabolising organism. The catalysts that take this role are called enzymes. Enzymes are the most efficient catalysts; they can enhance rate of reaction by up to 1020 over uncatalysed reactions. (Campbell et al, 2012).

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

Introduction:Enzymes are made up of proteins which are produced within living cells and act as catalysts which speed up chemical reactions. They are made up of long chains of amino acids containing carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. Enzymes are structured to be

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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.

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However if the temperature exceeds the optimum temperature the enzyme becomes denatured. This is because there is too much energy causing the enzyme molecules to vibrate causing the bonds maintaining their tertiary structure to break. The enzyme unravels causing the shape of the active site to change so it can no longer fit with the substrate.

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 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].

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).

allows it to bind to the same site on the enzyme (b). But there is no

Enzymes are an important part of all metabolic reactions in the body. They are catalytic proteins, able to increase the rate of a reaction, without being consumed in the process of doing so (Campbell 96). This allows the enzyme to be used again in another reaction. Enzymes speed up reactions by lowering the activation energy, the energy needed to break the chemical bonds between reactants allowing them to combine with other substances and form products (Campbell 100). In this experiment the enzyme used was acid phosphates (ACP), and the substrate was p-nitrophenyl phosphate.

Enzymes catalyse the macromolecular biologic process produced from living molecules, or cells. They create, accelerate or catalyse a chemical reaction between at least one other molecule, this is known as to synthesise. At the preenzyme process the target molecule is known as a substrate, once converted by the enzyme the changed molecule is referred to as the product. In order to sustain life all metabolic processes in the cell require enzymes in order to metabolise at a fast enough rate. The metabolic routefinders in a cell are determined by which set of enzymes are present in its makeup.

As you can see as soon as the lock gets denatured it wll no longer

Enzymes Enzymes are biological catalysts that carry out thousands of chemical reactions that occur in living cells. They are a class of proteins that have a unique three dimensional structure that allows it to bind with a specific substrate to facilitate a reaction. Many biological reactions will not occur spontaneously in the cell; there is simply not enough energy for the reaction to take place. Enzymes make these reactions possible by lowering the reactionÂ’s activation energy. Each cell has tens of thousands of different enzymes that collectively allow both the break down and synthesis of molecules to drive all cellular processes.