Enzymes Flashcards
What are enzymes ?
Biological catalysts that increase the rate of biochemical reactions without being changed at the end of the reaction
Lowers the activation energy of the reaction, allowing it to proceed at lower temperatures
Globular protein with specific 3D conformation which includes an active site with a specific shape and charge that recognises specific substrates
What are intracellular enz ?
Enz that are made and retained in cell, synthesised by free ribosomes
What are extracellular enz ?
Enz made in cell by ribosomes attached to the rER and are then passed through the endomembrane system to be secreted out of the cell
What are co-factors of enzymes ?
Non-protein components that are required for enz to function
What are the 6 properties of enz ?
Effective in small amounts
Remain chemically unchanged at the end of the reaction, thus can be reused repeatedly
Extremely effective, 1000-100000000 times faster than non-catalysed reaction
Globular protein with (at least) tertiary structure, soluble in aqueous solution
Specific active site in terms of shape, configuration and charge
Enz activity affected by changes in temperature, pH, substrate concentration, enzyme concentration and presence of inhibitors
(ANS FORMAT)
How to explain enz mode of action ?
- active site has specific shape and charge complementary to specific substrate
- Only specific substrate can bind ( enz specificity)
- Binding of substrate to active sire forms enzyme-substrate complex
- ESC lowers the Ea of the reaction
What is the active site (AS) of an enz ?
A small portion of the enz molecule (3-12 AA residues) which come into direct contact with substrates
What are the two groups of AA grouped into at the AS ?
Contact residues
Catalytic residues
What are contact residues ?
AA that form the shape of the AS that is complementary to the substrate, with complementary charges to the substrate
What do contact residues contribute to ?
Enz specificity
- facilitate substrate binding
What do catalytic resides contribute to ?
The ability of the enz to catalyse biochemical reaction
What do catalytic enz do ?
They increase the reactivity of the substrates by altering the charges on them
Other than the AA at AS, what do the other AA do?
They help maintain teh globular shape of the enz which helps maintain a the shape of the AS
Some form other binding sites (allosteric site)
Are the AA that form the AS close to each other in the primary structure ?
Not necessarily
- extensive folding of the polypeptide will bring them together
How does the ESC form ?
Binding of substrate to enz occurs as a result of effective collisions between enz and substrate molecules where substrate sits into the AS which has a complementary charge and shape to that of the substrate
What is the lock and key hypothesis
The substrate is completely complementary in shape to the AS - prefect fit
There is no change in shape when substrae binds
What is the induced fit hypothesis ?
In initial shape of the AS is not complementary to the shape of the substrate
Substrate binding to AS causes slight conformation change in the enz that enables the substrate to fit more snugly into the AS
What does the lock and key hypothesis explain?
How enz are specific to their substrate
What does the induced fit hypothesis explain ?
How enz lower the Ea of the reaction and perform their catalytic function more effectively
What is activation energy (Ea) ?
The amount of energy needed to bring 1 mole of substance to the transition state at a particular temperate
What does Ea represent in a reaction ?
The energy barrier that has to be overcome before a reaction an take place
How does formation of ESC lower Ea
Substrate fits snugly into AS and the R groups of the catalytic resides at the AS will increase the reactivity of the substrate
Different substrate molecules held in the AS are forced together in the correction orientation for reaction to occurs - facilitates bond formation
Certain bonds in the substrate molecules may be placed under physical stress (bending of bond) which increases the likelihood that the bond will break
How does catalytic AA increase reactivity of the substrate in the AS ?
Change the charge on the substrate, alter the distribution of electrons within the bonds of the substrate or cause other changes that will increase the reactivity of the substrate
What are the factors affecting rate of reaction ?
Enz concentration, substrate concentration, pH, temperature
What happens are low enzyme concentration ?
Enz concentration is the LF since all the AS are filled
Enz molecules present are saturated and working at the maximum rate
An increase in and concentration leads to an increase in rate as more AS are available for more effective collision between enz and substrate molecules, thus forming more ESC
What happens at high enz concentration ?
Substrate concentration becomes the LF since there are insufficient substrate molecules to bind to empty AS
Increase in enz concentration does not increase rate of effective collision of formation of ESC resulting in contain rate of reaction
What happens at Low substrate concentration ?
Substrate concentration is the LF
Increase in substrate concentration leads to proportional increase in rate of reaction as AS are avaliable, more effective collisions between enz and substrate molecules, forming more ESC
What happens at high substrate concentration ?
Enz concentration becomes LF as all teh AS are used up an enz are fully saturated, working at max rate
Substrate molecules must wait for free AS to be available to bind to
Increase in substrate concentration does not increase rate of effective collision or formation of ESC resulting in constant rate of reaction
What does the temperature of a reaction indicate ?
The amount of kinetic energy (KE) that reactants molecules have
What happens are temperatures below optimum ?
The enz is inactive as there is little KE available for effective collision to occur
As temperatures increase, the KE of substrates and enz increase meaning that they are moving at higher speeds - more effective collision between enz and substrate molecules, formation of more ESC