Exam 2 Flashcards
Energy required to in initiate a chemical reaction is known as ______________.
Activation Energy.
_______________ is the intermediate stage in a chemical reaction, of higher free energy than the initial state, through which reactants must pass before giving rise to products.
Transition state.
______________ condition where potential reactants are thermodynamically unstable but have insufficient energy to exceed the activation energy barrier for the reaction.
Metastable state.
Biological catalyst; protein (or in certain cases, RNA) molecule that acts on one or more specific substrates, converting them to products with different molecular structures.
Enzymes.
Region of an enzyme molecule at which the substrate binds and the catalytic event occurs.
Active site.
Small organic molecule or metal ion compartment of an enzyme that plays an indispensable role in the catalytic activity of the enzyme.
Prosthetic group also called cofactors.
Ability of an enzyme to discriminate between very similar molecule is called __________________.
Substrate specificity.
Ability of an enzyme to act on any of a whole group of substrates as long as they possess some common structural feature is called _______________.
Group specificity.
Model postulating that the active site of an enzyme is relatively specific for its substrate before it binds, but even more so thereafter because of a conformational change in the enzyme induced by the substrate.
Induced- fit model.
Role of an enzyme’s active site in making a substrate molecule maximally reactive by subjecting it to the appropriate chemical environment for catalysis.
Substrate activation.
