Enzymatic

Pepsin is an enzyme found in your stomach. This is a very acidic environment. What could be a possible pH level for pepsin?

2

Substrate

A reactant that fits into the active site of an enzyme

Hydrolysis

A type of enzyme-catalyzed chemical reaction that is very common in biology that involves breaking down a polymer into its building blocks (monomer).

Condensation or dehydration synthesis

A type of enzyme-catalyzed chemical reaction that is very common in biology that involves joining blocks (monomers) together to build a larger molecule known as a polymer.

Proteins are made of building blocks called amino acids. Based on this fact what are enzymes made of?

Amino acids

What types of reactions are catalyzed by enzymes?

Dehydration synthesis (condensation) & hydrolysis.

What is the most important factor in determining the specificity of an enzyme?

Enzyme and substrate shape.

What do enzymes do?

Enzymes speed up (catalyze) chemical reactions.

How is enzyme activity at varying substrate concentrations different from enzyme activity at varying temps or pH levels?

Graph for substrate concentration shows the rate levelling off when substrate concentration is high, instead of declining when not in the optimal range. Changes in substrate concentration do not cause the enzyme to denature, but changes in temp & pH may cause enzyme to denature.

High temps, and pH changes can cause an enzyme to denature. What does this mean?

It means the enzyme loses its shape and does not function.

The chemical reactions done by living organisms

Metabolism

What type of molecule are enzymes?

Proteins

What happens when the temp is high for substrates and enzymes?

Substrates move faster & collide with enzyme more, causing reaction rate to increase until the optimal temp is reached.

Why does reaction rate slow down drastically when temp is too high?

The enzyme loses its shape (denatures) and can no longer effectively catalyze the reaction.

We say that enzymes are specific. What does this mean?

The shape of the enzymes active site will only catalzye a reaction with a specfic substrate or substrates.

pH levels

There is an optimal pH level at which the enzyme works best. Above or below the optimal pH, enzyme becomes less effective. Enzyme denatures (loses its shape) at pH levels that are too high or too low.

The denaturation of enzymes by heat is

irreversible. Lowering the temp does not fix enzymes shape.

The denaturation of this enzyme by pH changes is

reversible. Restoring the pH to an optimal level does fix the enzymes shape.

At higher substrate concentrations,

there is more enzyme activity due to more collistions between enzyme and substrate until a maximum reaction rate is reached. Once max reaction rate for enzyme is reached, reaction rate levels off.

Are enzymes needed for metabolism?

yes