Enzymes

Question 1

What is an enzyme?

Answer 1

• Enzymes are biological catalysts.
• They are molecules made up of living cells. - - — Most enzymes are made up of protein and are globular. There is a group of enzymes called ribozymes which are composed by RNA like peptide transferase

Question 2

What does an enzyme do?

Answer 2

• Enzyme catalyses a wide range of metabolic processes critical to sustain life
  -enable metabolic reactions within living organisms to proceed rapidly at low temperatures

Question 3

Without enzyme what happens?

Answer 3

• Reactions that occur in living organisms occur too slowly for life to be sustained
• We can raise the temperature to increase speed of reactions, but it would kill the cells and organisms,proteins become denatures and membranes disrupted. SO energetically very expensive

Question 4

What is metaboilsm? Which is catabolism and anabolism

Answer 4

Anabolism - synthesis of molecules from smaller molecules and usually requires ATP. This usually also involves condensation

Catabolism - Breakdown of molecules and usually release energy stored in the bonds. This usually involves oxidation or hydrolysis.

Question 5

Properties of enzymes 6

Answer 5

1. Enzymes are highly specific in their action.
   - Most enzymes only act on one type of substrate molecules while others act on a group of highly similar substrate molecules
2. Enzymes are effective in small amounts.
   - A very small amount can bring about the conversion of large amount of substrates.
   - As they remain chemically unchanged at the end of reactions they catalyse,
   -thus can be reused.
3. Enzymes are very efficient
   - proceed 10^3-10^8 times faster
   - have a high turnover when enzymes are fully saturated with substrate (substrate molecules turned into products by one molecule of enzyme in one second )
   -speed up rate of both forward and backwood reaction
4. presence of enzyme does not alter the nature of properties of end-products the reaction
5. Enzymes are soluble in water
   - work in aq environment in living cells
6. Activity of enzymes affected by temperature,pH,enzyme concentration,substrate concentration and presence of activators and inhibitors

Question 6

Naming and classification of Enzymes

Answer 6

Kinases -