The Characteristics Of Enzymes: Biological Organisms In Biological Mechanisms

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Introduction
Enzymes are biological molecules that act as catalysts and help complex reactions occur everywhere in life. Every biochemical reaction in the cell is catalysed by specific enzymes.
Similar to other catalysts, biocatalysts increase the speed in which a reaction takes place but do not affect the thermodynamics of the reaction. However, they offer some unique characteristics over conventional catalysts.
They are generally more efficient (lower concentration of enzyme needed) and can be modified to increase selectivity, stability, and activity. They are highly selective (types of selectivity: chemo-selectivity, regio-selectivity, diastereo-selectivity, and enantio-selectivity).
They are environment friendly and are completely degraded …show more content…

This selectivity is often chiral (i.e., stereo-selectivity), positional (i.e., regio-selectivity), and functional group specific (i.e., chemo-selectivity). Such high selectivity is very desirable in chemical synthesis as it may offer several benefits such as reduced or no use of protecting groups, minimized side reactions, easier separation, and fewer environmental problems. Other advantages, like high catalytic efficiency and mild operational conditions, are also very attractive in commercial applications. [1]
Enzymes are in general globular proteins and range from just 62 amino acid residues in size, to over 2,500 residues. A small number of RNA-based biological catalysts exist, with the most common being the ribosome; these are referred to as RNA-enzymes. The activities of enzymes are determined by their three-dimensional structure. However, although structure does determine function, predicting a novel enzyme's activity just from its structure is a very difficult problem that has not yet been …show more content…

Enzymes can also process organic compounds such as sugars and alcohols, which are exceedingly frequent in nature. Most organic compounds cannot be used as fuel by fuel cells with metal catalysts because the carbon monoxide formed by the interaction of the carbon molecules with oxygen during the fuel cell’s implementation will quickly “poison” the precious metals that the cell relies on, rendering it ineffective. Because sugars and other biofuels can be developed and harvested on a massive scale, the fuel for enzymatic biofuel cells is cheap and can be found in nearly any part of the world, thus making it an amazingly striking option from a logistics standpoint, and even more so for those concerned with the adoption of renewable energy sources.
In current years, research on hydrogenases has grown significantly due to scientific and technological interest in hydrogen. The bidirectional or reversible reaction catalyzed by hydrogenase is a solution to the challenge in the development of technologies for the capture and storage of renewable energy as fuel with use on demand. This can be demonstrated through the chemical storage of electricity obtained from a renewable source (e.g. solar, wind, hydrothermal) as H2 during periods of low energy demands. When energy is desired, H2 can be oxidized to produce electricity

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