Enzymes Flashcards
What is an enzyme?
A globular protein which is a biological catalyst
What features of a biological catalyst differ from a chemical catalyst?
Catalyse very high reaction rates, shows great reaction specificity, work in mild temp/pH conditions, can be regulated
What are ribozymes?
Catalytic RNA molecules with no protein component
What is a cofactor?
A non-protein component needed to help an enzyme with activity
What is a coenzyme?
A complex organic molecule, usually produced from a vitamin
What are examples of coenzymes?
FAD, NAD+ and Coenzyme A
What is a prosthetic group?
A cofactor covalently bound to the enzyme or very tightly associated with the enzyme
What is an apoenzyme?
The protein component of an enzyme that contains a cofactor
What is a holoenzyme?
The whole enzyme (the apoenzyme plus the cofactor)
What is a substrate?
The molecule acted on by the enzyme
What is the active site?
The part of the enzyme in which the substrate binds and is acted upon
What three things to enzymes do?
- Increase rates of spontaenous reactions
- Lower the activation energy of biochemical reactions
- Accerlerate movement towards reaction equilibrium
What do enzymes not do?
They do NOT move reaction equilibria and do NOT make a non-spontaneous reaction spontaneous
What ΔG value does a spontaneous reaction have?
Negative (-ΔG)
What is the energy barrier?
The energy required to position chemical groups correctly, bond rearrangements, electron arrangements etc.
What happens at the transition state?
Chemical bonds are formed and broken
What happens if there is no enzyme to the activation energy?
It is a high activation energy
How do enzymes reduce the activation energy?
- Entrophy reduction
- Desolvation
- Induced fit
What is entrophy reduction?
Enzymes force the substrate to be correctly orientated by binding them in the formation they need to be in for the reaction
What is desolvation?
Weak bonds between substrate and enzyme replace H-bonds between subsrate and aqeous solution
What is induced fit?
Conformational changes occur in protein structure when substrate binds
What techniques can be used to analyse enzymes?
Enzyme kinetics, 3D structure, mutagenesis
What happens if you add more substrate to a reaction
More substrate = higher initial rate of reaction
What is Vmax in enzyme kinetics?
Vmax occurs when all enzyme active sites are saturated with substrate and you reach the maximum reaction velocity
How is the Michaelis constant calculated?
From the hyperboli reaction curve as half of the Vmax
When is the rate limiting step of an enzymatic reaction?
The breakdown of the ES complex to give free enzyme and product
What is the definition of Km?
Km is equivalent to the substrate concentration at which the initial reaction rate is half of the maximum reaction rate