Enzymes Flashcards
Inside a living thing what is happening?
Thousands of different chemical reactions are going on.
These reactions need to be carefully maintained to get the right amount of substances.
How can you make a reaction happen more quickly?
By raising the temperature.
What is the problem with raising the temperature during a chemical reaction?
It would speed up the useful reactions but also the unwanted ones, which isn’t good.
Limit to how far you can raise the temperature inside a living creature before the cells start getting damaged.
What do living things produce that help speed up chemical reactions inside our body?
Enzymes.
They act as biological catalysts.
They reduce the need for high temperatures.
They only speed up useful chemical reactions.
Define catalyst.
A substance which increases the speed of a reaction without being changed or used up in the reaction.
What are ALL enzymes?
Proteins.
All proteins are made up of chains of amino acids/
Chains are folded into unique shapes, which enzymes need to do their jobs.
As well as catalysts what do proteins (enzymes) act as?
Structural components of tissue, hormones and antibodies.
Why do enzymes have special shapes?
So they can catalyse reactions.
What do chemical reactions usually involve?
Things either being split apart or joined together.
How do enzymes catalyse a reaction?
They have a unique shape that fits onto the substrate involved in a reaction.
They usually only catalyse one reaction.
For the enzyme to work the substrate has to fit its special shape.
What happens if the substrate doesn’t match the enzymes unique shape?
Then the reaction will not be catalysed.
What do enzymes NEED to be able to work?
The right temperature and pH.
Changing the temperature of a chemical reaction changes what?
The rate of an enzyme catalysed reaction.
What does a high temperature do to the enzyme catalysed reaction?
It increases the rate at first.
But if it gets too hot some of the bonds holding the enzymes together break.
This destroys the enzymes special shape, it has become denatured.
What happens if the pH is too low or high?
It will interfere with the bonds holding the enzyme together.
Chainging the shape and denaturing it.
