Enzymes Flashcards
Why are enzymes called biological catalysts?
Enzymes are called biological catalysts because they speed up the rate of biological reactions in the body, without getting used up or altered in the process.
why are enzymes important for living organisms?
Enzymes play an important role in living organisms as they speed up metabolic reactions which would take too long to occur without them.
What is the active site of the enzymes
All enzymes contain an active site which is a sequence of amino acids with a very specific shape, the shape is complementary to the substrate.
Explain the enzyme-substrate complex?
When an enzyme breaks the substrate down, the substrate enters the active site of the enzyme and forms an enzyme-substrate complex, the substrate is then broken down and the product is formed and leaves the active site. The enzyme can then bind to another substrate.
Why cant enzymes break down other types of substrates?
Each enzyme is complementary to only one type of substrate, hence it cannot break down other substrates.
What are the factors affecting enzymes?
PH and temperature are the two factors affecting enzymes. Enzymes have an optimum temperature and ph and the further it moves away from the optimum the more the rate of reaction decreases.
When can we say that an enzyme has denatured?
When the ph or temperature moves so far away from the optimum to the point the active site of the enzyme changes shape, we can say that the enzyme has denatured.
Why does more enzyme-substrate complexes form when the temperature increases?
As the temperature increases up the enzymes optimum, the rate of reaction increases. This is because the molecules have more kinetic energy, thus moving faster. Consequently, more collisions occur and more enzyme-substrate complexes form.
