The Industrial Application of Enzymes
Enzymes are naturally occurring biological molecules found in all
living organisms, plant, animal and microorganisms such as bacteria.
All enzymes are proteins and, as with all proteins, are made up of a
chain or polymer of amino acids held together by peptide bonds. This
chain coils to form a specific three-dimensional globular shape,
which, typically, means an enzyme will only work with one specific
substrate. The purpose of an enzyme is to lower the activation energy
required for biochemical reactions to take place. As a result a
reaction catalysed by an enzyme will be much more efficient at
breaking down a substrate into its products and consequently are used
in industry for just this purpose. To obtain these enzymes scientist
look mostly tonaturally occurring microorganisms, as they are the most
productive producers, are easy to handle, can be grown in huge tanks
without light, and have a very high growth rate. This may sound all
very new and scientific but microorganisms have been used for brewing,
baking and alcohol production long before anybody knew of the
existence of enzymes. One of the earliest references can be found in
Homer's Greek poems dating from about 800 BC where he mentions the use
of enzymes in the production of cheese.
The starch industry has been using enzymes too for many years in the
production of 'artificial' sweeteners. Although sucrose is readily
available from the harvesting of cane or beet sugar, glucose and
maltose need extracting from starch by enzymic or chemical
extraction.Starch is a polymer where the individual units in the
polymer are glucose molecules....
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... a pair of jeans would be
washed literally together with stones, in recent years enzymes have
replaced the stones. This technique, known as Biostoning, results in
much greater fading without the high abrasive damage both to the
actual fabric of the jeans and the washing machines in which the
process takes place.
There are even enzymes which will peel a citrus fruit or de-stone a
peach for you. These are commonly used only in the catering industry
as a replacement for caustic soda, however maybe one day the use of
enzymes for medial tasks like peeling an orange will become
commonplace.
Bibliography:
http://www.gcsechemistry.com/rc13d.htm
http://www.ncbe.reading.ac.uk/NCBE/PROTOCOLS/PRACBIOTECH/PDF/wash.pdf
http://www.acaris.co.uk/asthma/faq.html
http://www.mycustompak.com/healthNotes/Supp/FOS.htm
Enzymes are biological catalysts, which are proteins that help speed up chemical reactions. Enzymes use reactants, known as the substrates, and are converted into products. Through this chemical reaction, the enzyme itself is not consumed and can be used over and over again for future chemical reactions, but with the same substrate and product formed. Enzymes usually only convert specific substrates into products. Substrates bind to the region of an enzyme called the active site to form the enzyme/substrate complex. Then this becomes the enzyme/products complex, and then the products leave the enzyme. The activity of enzymes can be altered based on a couple of factors. Factors include pH, temperature and others. These factors, if they become
I will use a set of five pH's to get my readings from the collected
Background information:. Enzyme Enzymes are protein molecules that act as the biological catalysts. A Catalyst is a molecule which can speed up chemical reactions but remains unchanged at the end of the reaction. Enzymes catalyze most of the metabolic reactions that take place within a living organism. They speed up the metabolic reactions by lowering the amount of energy.
Enzymes are proteins that are used to accelerate bio chemical reactions. Enzymes can only react with what is called a substrate. This is because the enzyme has a specific working property, such as having a distinct shape that only allows a perfect fit of a substrate. This substrate locks itself to the enzyme and produces a product.
Enzymes are biological catalysts - catalysts are substances that increase the rate of chemical reactions without being altered itself. Enzymes are also proteins that fold into complex shapes that allow smaller molecules to fit into them. The place where these substrate molecules fit is called the active site. The active site is the region of an enzyme where substrate molecules bind and undergo a chemical reaction. The active site consists of residues that form temporary bonds with the substrate and residues that catalyse a reaction of that substrate. (Clark, 2016)
In biology class, we were learning about enzymes. Enzymes are proteins that help catalyze chemical reactions in our bodies. In the lab, we were testing the relationship between the enzyme catalase and the rate of a chemical reaction. We predicted that if there was a higher percentage of enzyme concentration, then the rate of chemical reaction would increase or it would take less time. We placed 1 ml of hydrogen peroxide into four depressions. Underneath the first depression, we place 1 ml of 100% catalase and make 50% dilution with 0.5 ml of water. We take 50% of that solution and dilute with 0.5 ml of water and we repeat it two more times. there were four depressions filled with catalase: 100%, 50%, 25% , 12.5 % with the last three diluted
1. If gas bubbles form then fermentation occurred. Glucose. Carbon dioxide. The enzyme didn’t recognize the structure of glactose, because of the orientation of the H and OH on the carbon 4 is different than glucose. The enzyme only identifies very specific substances.
Enzymes have the ability to act on a small group of chemically similar substances. Enzymes are very specific, in the sense that each enzyme is limited to interact with only one set of reactants; the reactants are referred to as substrates. Substrates of an enzyme are the chemicals altered by enzyme-catalysed reactions. The extreme specific nature of enzymes are because of the complicated three-dimensional shape, which is due to the particular way the amino acid chain of proteins folds.
Enzymes in general are very interesting to learn from and are fundamental in carrying out processes in various organisms. Enzymes are proteins that control the speed of reactions, they help quicken the rate of the reaction and also help cells to communicate with each other. There are 3 main groups of enzymes, first are the metabolic enzymes that control breathing, thinking, talking, moving, and immunity. Next are the digestive enzymes that digest food and normally end with –ase, there are 22 known digestive enzymes and examples of these are Amylase, Protease, and Lipase. The final group are the Food or plant enzymes which is what my enzyme that I’m studying falls under. Papain gets its name because it comes from papaya fruit, its main purpose is to break down proteins and break peptide bonds however it is not only used in the Papaya fruit and has many external uses. It was also very helpful in the 1950s when scientists were trying to understand enzymes. It also helps us to this day understand Protein structural studies and peptide mapping. Without enzymes, reactions in the body would not happen fast enough and would tarnish our way of life which is why it is vital that we study and learn from them.
Enzymes have been used in research, mainly because of their ability to facilitate reactions without being changed themselves as well as their ability to speed up these reactions, which would otherwise take a much longer period of time to complete. And it is these two features that compel me to conduct further research into the applications of enzymes.
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Enzymes in Medicine and Industry What is an enzyme? = == ==
All enzymes are proteins, which are specific to the molecule that they break down. This is known as the ‘lock and key’ theory, where the active site only allows a specific substrate to be broken down, eventually resulting in easier absorption (larger surface area). Enzymes are made up of a long chain of amino acids, which form together in such a way as to leave a specific pocket, into which a substrate (as long as it fits perfectly into the pocket) can fit into it like a key in a lock (hence the ‘lock and key’ theory). The reaction then takes place, and the product of the substrate is then released.
Abstract: Enzymes are catalysts therefore we can state that they work to start a reaction or speed it up. The chemical transformed due to the enzyme (catalase) is known as the substrate. In this lab the chemical used was hydrogen peroxide because it can be broken down by catalase. The substrate in this lab would be hydrogen peroxide and the enzymes used will be catalase which is found in both potatoes and liver. This substrate will fill the active sites on the enzyme and the reaction will vary based on the concentration of both and the different factors in the experiment. Students placed either liver or potatoes in test tubes with the substrate and observed them at different temperatures as well as with different concentrations of the substrate. Upon reviewing observations, it can be concluded that liver contains the greater amount of catalase as its rates of reaction were greater than that of the potato.
Enzymes are protein molecules that are made by organisms to catalyze reactions. Typically, enzymes speeds up the rate of the reaction within cells. Enzymes are primarily important to living organisms because it helps with metabolism and the digestive system. For example, enzymes can break larger molecules into smaller molecules to help the body absorb the smaller pieces faster. In addition, some enzyme molecules bind molecules together. However, the initial purpose of the enzyme is to speed up reactions for a certain reason because they are “highly selective catalysts” (Castro J. 2014). In other words, an enzyme is a catalyst, which is a substance that increases the rate of a reaction without undergoing changes. Moreover, enzymes work with
Investigating a Factor that Affects Enzyme Activity Planning -------- Aim --- To investigate a factor which will affect the activity of catalase, whilst keeping all variables constant. Possible Independent Variables ------------------------------ Here are a number of possible independent variables that could be changed in the experiment: Independent variable Continuous/Discontinuous Easy to measure?