Enzyme Lab Report

Introduction
Metabolic reactions need enzymes, without enzymes reactions would occur at a pace which is far too slow to keep up with the life functions of an organism. (Campbell et al. 2000; Brooker et al. 2008; Reece et al. 2012).
An enzyme is a biological macromolecule protein which acts as a catalyst, it speeds up a specific chemical reaction without being consumed or changed in the process. When the substrate and enzyme are combined they form an enzyme substrate complex. Enzymes shape can change making their active site fit more tightly to the substrate entering.

With the ability to change shape enzymes also have ‘co-workers’ such as co-enzymes that help facilitate enzyme reactions, competitive inhibitors that inhibit certain enzymes by

However, at some point the concentration of substrate will be high enough that all enzyme molecules have their active sites engaged. This is said that the enzyme is saturated. Enzymes always require their 3D structure regardless of which model you use “induced fit” or “lock and key” to be able to match the substrate it chemically changes. Without the tertiary structure the enzyme would not be able to bind to the molecule which would drastically decrease the chances of a reaction occurring, if at all (Brooker et al. 2008; Reece et al.

As temperature increases it forces molecules to move more rapidly thus increasing the chance of enzymes to collide into active sites more frequently, up until a point. After that point however the speed of the enzymatic activity slows down drastically because the thermal effects on the molecules disrupts the bonds and causes denaturing of the protein molecule. Each enzyme has an optimal temperature (oC) for peak reaction rate, without denaturing of the enzyme (Brooker et al. 2008; Reece et al. 2012). Reece et al. (2012) found that for most enzymes it falls in between 35-40 ºC our results were consistent with this temperature range. α-Amylase functions best at 37 ºC before slowing down rapidly. Just as an enzyme has an optimal temperature, it also has an optimal pH. The optimum pH for most enzymes is pH6-8 which was concluded in our experiment with α-amylase optimum pH being