Enzyme Lab

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“Enzymes are organic molecules that act as catalysts”. Enzymes are proteins, they are long chain of amino acids that form a very specific and complex 3D-shape. This chain of enzymes are specific to match a specific molecules known as substrate. This specific area, substrate, is also called the active site. An analogy that is very commonly used is the lock and key hypothesis. In this analogy the lock represent the enzyme is active site and the key represent the specific substrate. This explain that as the lock is complex and specific for only one key, the enzymes are specific for only one substrates. There are three main factors that affect the enzyme-catalyzed reactions and these are: o TEMPERATURE: Both enzymes and substrate are in motion and the motion depends on the temperature. With a higher temperatures the molecules will move faster because more kinetic energy is present. The reaction depend on the collision of the molecule, and as the movement is faster, the collision it happen more often and the rate of temperature increase. However reaction as his upper limit, and as soon as it reach the optimum temperature, the bond of the molecule of the 3D-shape start to be stressed and broken. When it completely loose its shape, it is said to be…show more content…
In order to have a catalytic action, the positive and negative area of the substrate must match with the opposite charge when is in the active site of an enzyme. However when a solution has become too acidic, the large number of hydrogen ions (H+) can bond with negative charges and prevent the proper charge matching between the two, or vice versa large number of hydroxide ions (-OH) can bond with positive charges and once again prevent the proper charge matching between the two. When one the case above happen, the enzymes become inactive and when it star losing its shape it becomes

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