Enzymes Flashcards
A common biological reaction without enzyme catalysis will take
750,000,000 years
Enzymes are
biological catalysts that accelerate the rate of a reaction
Most enzymes are …….
A few enzymes are …….. that are made up of ……….
proteins
ribozymes
RNA
Enzymes are not ……….. ………… during the reaction
permanently changed
Properties of enzymes
- highly efficient
- highly specific
- regulation
Ratio of catalyzed reaction to uncatalyzed reactions
kcat/kuncat
for some reactions, this can be up to 10^17
Classes of enzyme specificty
absolute
group
linkage
stereochemical
Absolute
enzyme reacts with only one substrate
Group
enzyme catalyzes reaction involving any molecules with same functional group
Linkage
enzyme catalyzes the formation or break up of only certain category or type of bond
stereochemical
enzyme recognizes only 1 of 2 enantiomers
How do catalysts work?
increase the rate of reactions by lowering the activation energy
Activation Energy
the energy required to break bonds
Every enzyme has an
active site
Active site
pocket or groove on enzyme that binds to substrate
Substrate
the reactant on which an enzyme works
Mechanism of enzyme action
enzyme binds w/ substrate
product is formed at a lower activation energy
product is released
Induced fit enzyme model
assumes that the enzyme active site is more a flexible pocket whose conformation changes to fit the substrate molecule
Lock and key
the enzyme is assumed to be the lock and the substrate the key
-the enzyme and substrate are made to fit exactly
Why is the lock and key model outdated?
the model fails to take into account protein’s conformational changes to fit a substrate molecule
Chemical composition of enzymes
can either be simple or complex enzymes (holoenzymes)
Complex enzymes don’t function without the
non-protein part
Non-protein part can be
- cofactor
- coenzyme
- prosthetic group
Inorganic cofactor- minerals
- inorganic
- small