Lab Report Enzyme

645 Words3 Pages
Enzymes Enzyme Concentration and Enzyme Activity As the enzyme concentration increased while the substrate concentration and pH (using a pH 7 buffer) were held constant, the rate of reaction increased until there wasn’t an excess amount of substrate. Once this occurred, the reaction rate leveled off (and decreased due to human error). The absorbance of the wavelength (420nm) through the solution is proportional to the concentration of solute molecules and the reaction rate of the solution. When the substrate (catechol) concentration (2.0 ml) was constant and the enzyme (catecholase) concentration was (0.5 ml), the maximum rate occurred at an absorbance of 0.815, because the enzyme was converting the substrate into product at the fastest rate.…show more content…
This max rate was reached when the absorbance was .682 at 420 nm, the enzyme (catecholase) concentration was constant throughout the experiment at 1.5 ml, and there were 16 drops of substrate (catechol). This relates to organisms’ cells because if the substrate concentration in the cells continues to increase yet the cells don’t produce more enzymes to catalyze the reaction, then the cells will reach a maximum reaction rate where all enzymes are in use all the time and the cells aren’t as efficient as they could be if they were to manufacture more enzymes to speed up the rate of the reaction. A human error occurred when 8 drops of substrate were added and the absorbance was 0.328, so this data was excluded when…show more content…
The optimal temperature (with the greatest absorbance) was 24°C, and the temperature at 50°C was too high, significantly lowering the functionality of the enzymes. In living cells, most enzymes (other than the rare species of bacteria found in extreme temperature settings) are denatured and become inactive at temperatures greater than 40°C. (This was shown in sample 3 at a temperature of 50°C.) Sample Temperature (°C) Absorbance (420 nm) 1 4 1.02 2 24 1.17 3 50 0.529 pH and Enzyme Activity While the substrate (1 ml catechol) and enzyme (1 ml catecholase) concentrations were kept constant and the pH varied, the optimum pH with the highest absorption rate and highest rate of reaction was at 6. Similar to how living cells react to pH, too low (acidic) or too high (basic) pH values caused concentrated ions (H+ and OH−) to affect enzyme activity by altering the folded protein structure (pH of 4 and 10 in this experiment). This denaturation of the enzyme causes the secondary and tertiary structures of the protein/enzyme to

More about Lab Report Enzyme

Open Document