MB S1 Flashcards
What are enzymes?
Enzymes are proteins, that have amino acids as their building blocks.
What are the main elements that make up the amino acids in the proteins?
Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen and Hydrogen
What is the role of enzymes?
They control the rate of chemical reactions in the body. They usually speed up reactions.
What is a catalyst?
A catalyst is a substance that speeds up a chemical reaction.
How is a catalyst and enzyme similar?
Enzymes are organic catalysts, as they also speed up reactions within the body.
What is specific about a catalyst when involved in a reaction?
Whilst the catalyst speeds up the reaction, they do not become apart of the reaction. And therefore can be reused over and over again (so can enzymes)
How is an enzyme held together?
The enzyme is held into a specific shape with weak hydrogen bonds.
Are enzymes specific to their uses?
Yes, there are specific enzymes for different chemical reactions around the body.
What type of Catalyst is a enzyme?
An Organic Catalyst
What does an enzyme do?
Speed up chemical reactions.
What model best describes the functions of an enzyme?
A lock and Key model
How does a enzyme help the speed of a chemical reaction?
It lowers the activation energy.
What is the active site?
The active site is the small part of an enzyme where the substrate molecules bind and undergo a chemical reaction.
How does this chemical reaction occur on the active site?
The substrate collides with the active site of the enzyme… where the chemical reaction then occurs. Acting as a organic catalyst.
Enzymes are made of…
…proteins (chains of amino acids) which are held together by weak hydrogen bonds.
heat and acids can break the hydrogen bonds… which then change?
The shape of the enzyme
What can heat and acids do to the weak hydrogen bonds in an enzyme?
They break them, which then change the specific shape of the enzyme.
When an enzyme is broken with heat or an acid, it changes the nature of the enzyme. What is the term that explains this?
The enzyme is “denatured”
What is metabolism?
The sum total of all the chemical reactions that occur in an organism in order to maintain life.
What is the role of an enzyme in terms of acting as an organic catalyst?
Enzymes are organic catalysts. A catalyst is a general term for any substance that speeds up or brings about a chemical change, without itself being used up.
What do enzymes control?
All the chemical processes within living systems. Enzymes are produced within living cells.
What is the chemical composition of an enzyme?
Enzymes are proteins. They are made up of amino acids that are linked and then folded to produce a 3-D structure. The folded shape is related to enzyme specificity.
Each enzyme catalyses a…
distinct chemical reaction.
There are two models which identify the Specificity of the enzymes, these are known as?
The lock and key model and also the induced-fit Model