Soraya Pashaei Marandi Section 521 Assignment 4 Enzymes Protein Catalysts Enzymes are a crucial part of biochemical reactions These catalytic proteins allow reactions to speed up in order to support living cells Therefore they are an essential for life on Earth to exist Extreme conditions such as excess pH and high temperatures cause enzymes to denature which ceases their normal function Enzyme reactions can also be affected by concentrations of substrate and enzyme molecules For this lab these factors were tested on the activity of the catecholase enzyme Catecholase is commonly found in fruits and vegetables Catecholase speeds up the reaction between catechol and oxygen to form water and benzoquinone For the first part of the lab graph 4 1 the amount of enzyme concentration in each test tube varied along with the amount of substrate to test the rate of reaction As the enzyme concentration increased relative to the substrate concentration decreasing the rate of reaction increased This is important in relation to cells because they control the reaction rates by altering the enzyme concentrations The next part of the experiment graph 4 2 involved altering the substrate concentration while holding the enzyme concentration constant Due to the fixed amount of enzyme the reaction time increased with increased substrate concentration This is the case until the enzyme catalysts reaches maximum velocity at which point adding more substrate has no adverse affect on the reaction rate due to all the enzyme being involved For the third part of the lab graph 4 3 the substrate and enzyme concentration were held constant while testing the affect of temperature As the temperature increased the rate of reaction increased Most enzymes denature above 40 degrees Celsius and this is proven in the lab where at 50 degrees Celsius there was the slowest reaction rate The last part of the experiment graph 4 4 tested the affects of different pH levels on enzyme activity Enzymes are sensitive to pH because H and OH ions are reactive and a high concentration of either alters the protein structure Enzymes were most active at the optimal pH value of 7 because extreme pH environments cause a loss of enzyme activity due to denaturation
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