Homeostasis of Enzymes
What is an enzyme?How do enzymes work?
What factors can effect enzyme action?
Enzyme
--An enzyme is a biological catalyst (They speed the rate of chemical reactions)--Increase the rate of reaction by lowering the
amount of activation energy--They are responsible for thousands and
thousands of chemical processes that sustain life
--Enzymes are proteins in nature and structure
Enzyme Action
• Enzymes act by converting starting molecules (substrates) into different molecules (products)
• Almost all chemical reactions in a biological cell need enzymes in order to occur at rates sufficient for life
• If it doesn’t happen fast enough, cell death could result
Organization
Remember:If cells die, tissues are compromised
If tissues are compromised, organs can fail
If organs fail, systems won’t function
If systems won’t function, Humans can die
Factors affecting the rate of enzyme activity
Optimum is a useful word which means "the best”
We call the temperature or pH which makes an enzyme work at its very fastest the optimum for that enzyme
The rate of enzyme activity increases with as temperature increases until the optimum temperature, then falls to zero as the enzyme is denatured
Denatured…..
This means that the protein changes shape and the active site is no longer complementary to the substrate molecule
Graphing the action of enzymes
Enzyme: Catalase
In your body, the enzyme catalase is very important. I helps to convert Hydrogen Peroxide to Oxygen and Water
Take a look at the following graph:
In the graph, the rate of catalase activity isdirectly related to the percent increase in Oxygen
What can you can conclude from the graph?
