ENZYMES

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT CATALYSTS?

 CATALYST

◼ A substance that increases the rate of/speeds up a chemical reaction,

without being changed itself
 ENZYMES – BIOLOGICAL CATALYSTS

◼ Within all living organisms, chemical reactions are taking place all the
time! These reactions are called metabolic reactions.

◼ Almost all metabolic reactions in living beings are controlled by catalysts

called enzymes

◼ Enzymes are protein in nature

◼ Metabolic reactions would take place very slowly or not at all without
enzymes

◼ Enzymes ensure that the rates of metabolic reactions are enough to sustain
life
 METABOLIC REACTIONS

Metabolic reactions can be of two types:

◼ Catabolic (breakdown of large molecules into smaller ones)

◼ Anabolic (building of large molecules from smaller ones)

◼ Can you think of an example for each?

 METABOLIC REACTIONS

Catabolic (breakdown of large Anabolic (amino acids linking up

carbohydrate molecules like starch to make proteins)
to smaller ones like maltose)
 ENZYMES – BIOLOGICAL CATALYSTS

Example-1

◼ In the intestine, large food molecules are broken down into smaller ones in the process of
digestion

◼ These reactions are speeded up by enzymes

◼ A different enzyme is needed for each kind of nutrient – enzymes are VERY specific

◼ Starch is digested to Maltose (Amylase)

◼ Proteins digested to amino acids (Protease)

 ENZYMES – BIOLOGICAL CATALYSTS

Example-2: In germinating seeds of plants, enzymes digest the food stores for the
growing seedling

◼ Plant seeds contain food stores in the form of starch

◼ Starch being insoluble, cannot be transported to the embryo of the seedling (for
energy and hence growth)
 ENZYMES – BIOLOGICAL CATALYSTS

◼ As the seed soaks up water, the enzyme amylase

becomes active and starts breaking down starch to
maltose

◼ Maltose is soluble – gets transported to the embryo.

◼ The embryo uses it to provide energy for growth

 Cellulose

◼ Maltose can be further broken down to glucose molecules.

◼ These glucose molecules can then be linked together to make cellulose molecules

◼ Cellulose is necessary for the cell walls of the new plant cell produced as the embryo
grows
 ENZYMES – BIOLOGICAL CATALYSTS

Example-3:
◼ Enzyme Catalase (speeds up the breakdown of hydrogen peroxide to water and
oxygen)
◼ Catalase works inside ALL the cells of living organisms
◼ Many chemical reactions taking place inside living cells produce hydrogen
peroxide
◼ It is a dangerous substance and must be broken down immediately.
 ENZYMES – BIOLOGICAL CATALYSTS

Enzyme catalase is the fastest enzyme known

One catalase molecule can breakdown 44 million hydrogen per oxide molecules
in one second!
 NAMING ENZYMES

◼ Enzymes are named according to the reaction they catalyze

◼ Their names usually end with “-ase”

1) Carbohydrases (catalyze the breakdown of carbohydrates)

2) Proteases (catalyze the breakdown of proteins)
3) Lipases (catalyze the breakdown of lipids)
 NAMING ENZYMES

◼ Sometimes, enzymes are given an even more specific name.

◼ For example, all of the following are categorized as carbohydrases, but can be
sub-categorized based on the specific carbohydrate that they breakdown:

1) Amylase (breaks down starch)

2) Sucrase (breaks down sucrose)
3) Maltase (breaks down maltose)
 NAMING ENZYMES

◼ The substance that an enzyme changes is called its substrate

◼ For example, the substrate of enzyme amylase is starch

◼ What is the substrate of lipase?

◼ What type of enzyme do you think Lactase is?

◼ What will be the substrate of lactase?
HOW ENZYMES WORK
THE LOCK AND KEY
HYPOTHESIS
HOW ENZYMES WORK
 HOW ENZYMES WORK

◼ Substrate fits into the active site of the

enzyme

◼ Shapes of active site and substrate

MUST be complementary to each other
for this to happen

◼ ENZYMES ARE VERY SPECIFIC.

They are only able to act on a
particular/specific substrate
 HOW ENZYMES WORK

◼ Enzyme-substrate complex is formed

◼ Enzyme changes the substrate to the product(s)

◼ Product breaks away from the enzyme

◼ Enzyme is free and unchanged

◼ Enzyme can be used again to catalyze a similar reaction

 HOW ENZYMES WORK

ENZYME SPECIFICITY

Each enzyme can catalyze reactions with only one

type of substrate. This is described as ENZYME
SPECIFICITY
 HOW ENZYMES WORK

◼ Enzymes can also catalyze reactions where two substrates bind the active site of the
enzyme and it changes them into a single product (Anabolic Reaction)
 INTERESTING FACTS!

◼ Read through page-83 “Lactose Intolerance”

QUICK QUIZ
QUICK QUIZ
 FACTORS THAT AFFECT ENZYMES

◼ Enzymes usually act very quickly

◼ A single enzyme molecule can change many substrate molecules into

products every second!

◼ The following two factors however, can affect the speed of enzyme action:

TEMPERATURE

PH
 EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE ON ENZYME
ACTIVITY

◼ Each kind of enzyme has a particular

temperature at which it works fastest

◼ That temperature is referred to as the

optimum temperature for that enzyme

◼ Different enzymes can have different

optimum temperatures
 EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE ON ENZYMES

◼ Enzymes from the human body generally have an optimum temperature of

about 37ºC

◼ Enzymes from plants may have an optimum temperature much lower than this
EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE ON ENZYMES

Some bacteria, especially those that live in hot springs may have really high optimum
temperatures (up to 80ºC in some cases)
EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE ON ENZYME
ACTIVITY

Look at the graph above and describe what is shown on the graph.
(When describing a graph, it is a good idea to quote figures/statistics (with units) )
 EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE ON ENZYME
ACTIVITY
◼ As temperature increases from 0 to 37°C, the
rate of reaction increases exponentially

◼ 37°C is the optimum temperature for this

enzyme and it works best at it

◼ As temperature increases above 37°C, the rate

of reaction starts to decrease

◼ Reaction rate reaches 0 at 58 °C

◼ This decrease is steeper than the increase at

lower temperatures
 EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE ON ENZYME
ACTIVITY

Why do you think temperature affects the enzyme activity like this? (as shown in the
graph)
EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE ON ENZYMES

Enzyme & substrate molecules bind as a consequence of their random collisions

with each other.
Both enzyme and substrate molecules have sufficient kinetic energy to show random
movement
 EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE ON ENZYMES

• As the temperature increases, the kinetic energy of

enzyme and substrate molecules increases

• They move faster and collide with each other more

frequently and with more energy

• Effective collisions are more frequent

• Each second, more substrate molecules collide with an

active site and are converted to product

◼ This is why enzyme activity increases with increasing

temperature
 DENATURATION

◼ However, as temperature increases above the optimum, the kinetic energy of

the enzymes begin to shake it apart

◼ Enzyme molecules begin to lose their shape

 DENATURATION

◼ High temperatures damage the enzyme resulting in the enzyme losing its
structure/shape

◼ The enzyme is said to be denatured

 DENATURATION

◼ A denatured enzyme cannot catalyze its reactions anymore because the shape
of its active site is no longer complementary to the substrate
◼ Hence the substrate can no longer bind to the enzyme.
 DENATURATION

◼ It cannot form an enzyme substrate complex and is not converted to product

◼ The activity of the enzyme hence decreases
◼ For most enzymes, the activity completely stops at 60ºC.
◼ When the temperature reaches 60ºC, the active site is so out of shape that the
enzyme has completely stopped working
◼ It is completely denatured.
 EFFECT OF PH ON ENZYME ACTIVITY

◼ Like temperature, each enzyme has a

particular pH where it works best-
Optimum pH

◼ What is the optimum pH of the protease

enzyme in stomach?

◼ What is the optimum pH of most

enzymes?

◼ What is the range of pH values at which

most enzymes are able to work?
 EFFECT OF PH ON ENZYME ACTIVITY

◼ Optimum pH for most enzymes is around 7

◼ However, there are some enzymes which have optimum pH values in extremely
acidic or alkaline ranges as well

◼ Example: Protease enzyme in the stomach has an optimum pH of 2

◼ When an enzyme is placed in a liquid with a pH that is not its optimum pH, it is
damaged

◼ A pH well above or below an enzyme’s optimum pH causes the molecule to lose its
shape (hence no binding with substrate)

◼ The enzyme gets denatured and cannot catalyze its reaction

SUBSTRATE CONCENTRATION (LIMITING
FACTOR)
 SUBSTRATE CONCENTRATION (LIMITING
FACTOR)
◼ Increasing the substrate concentration increases the rate of enzyme activity until a
certain point

◼ After a certain point, no further increase in enzyme activity is seen even if substrate
concentration is increased

◼ The enzyme activity will remain stationary, as all the enzyme molecules are already
saturated/bound with substrate molecules

◼ No enzyme active site is free to bind more substrate

 PROGRESS OF AN ENZYME CATALYZED
REACTION
◼ To follow the progress of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction, we can check the
concentration of either the product or the substrate.

◼ Take a moment and try to explain how that can help us follow the progress of
the reaction?
 PROGRESS OF AN ENZYME CATALYZED
REACTION
◼ If an enzyme-catalyzed reaction is progressing, the concentration of the
substrate should decrease with time

◼ This is because the enzyme molecules should be constantly binding to the

substrate molecules and converting them into products

◼ Consequently, the concentration of the product should increase with time

PROGRESS OF AN ENZYME CATALYZED
REACTION

Maltose

starch
 PROGRESS OF AN ENZYME CATALYZED
REACTION
◼ A student has a solution of starch with her. She adds amylase to this
solution. Let’s call this Solution A
◼ She fills the wells of the plate with Solution A (1 mL each) after intervals of
10 minutes. Each well already had 3 drops of iodine in it. Explain her results.

0 mins 10 mins 20 mins

blue/black Less dark brown

 PROGRESS OF AN ENZYME CATALYZED
REACTION
◼ With time, the starch (substrate) concentration decreases and eventually
the starch disappears
◼ All starch molecules have been converted to maltose by the enzyme Amylase

Less
dark
 PROGRESS OF AN ENZYME CATALYZED
REACTION
◼ What color changes will be observed if the same experiment is repeated but the
samples are tested with Benedict’s Test instead?
◼ Each tube has starch solution, amylase, Benedict’s solution added after the given
time intervals and sample heated for 2mins

0 minutes 10 minutes 20 minutes

 PROGRESS OF AN ENZYME CATALYZED
REACTION
◼ With time, the concentration of Maltose (Product) increases
◼ This shows that the enzyme Amylase is converting Starch to Maltose
PROGRESS OF AN ENZYME CATALYZED
REACTION

Substrate
concentration
Less
dark

With time, the enzyme Amylase acts on the Substrate Starch which decreases in
concentration. At the same time, the concentration of Product (Maltose) is seen to
increase

Product
Concentration
 PROGRESS OF AN ENZYME CATALYZED
REACTION
◼ These are however, qualitative tests.
◼ To study the progress of an enzyme catalyzed reaction, the concentration of
substrate or product is monitored via Quantitative methods.
COMMERCIAL USES OF ENZYMES
COMMERCIAL USES OF ENZYMES

Soft centered chocolate is made with the help of the enzyme sucrase. A
thick, semi-solid paste of sucrose and a little water containing sucrase
is covered in chocolate and left at room temperature for a few
days. The sucrose is converted into a mixture of glucose and fructose
which creates a soft centre to the chocolate.
 COMMERCIAL USES OF ENZYMES

Cellulase enzyme produced by certain bacteria can decompose and remove ink from
paper. This paper can be re-cycled and re-used
 LET’S INVESTIGATE

◼ See pg 87 to 90 of your textbook.

 USE OF ENZYMES IN BIOLOGICAL
WASHING POWDERS
◼ [Link]
33

◼ Study this video in detail and make your notes.