Enzymes Flashcards
Active site
-Indented area on the surface of an enzymes molecule, with a shape that is complementary to the shape of the substrate molecule
Catalyst
-Chemical that speeds up the rate of a reaction and remains unchanged and reusable at the end of the reaction
Extracellular
-Outside the cell
Intracellular
-Inside the cell
Metabolic/metabolism
-the chemical reactions that take place inside living cells or organisms
Product
-Molecule produced from the substrate molecules, by an enzyme-catalysed reaction
Substrate
-Molecule that is altered by an enzyme-catalysed reaction
What are enzymes?
-Biological catalysts that speed up metabolic reactions in living organisms
What can a small number of catalysts do with substrates?
-Catalyse a large number of substrate molecules into products
Turnover number
-The number of reactions that an enzyme molecule can catalyse per second
Why are enzyme molecules good catalysts?
- Speed up metabolic reactions by up to 10 to the 12 times at lower temperatures than chemical catalysts
- Don’t need extreamly high pressure to function.