as we discussed before, enzymes are catalysts, which means they speed up reactions without being part of the reaction itself. mr mahfouz described it with cars being enzymes, with limited seats.
today we were talking about reactions with enzymes. so long as there as substrates, enzymes will keep on working. substrates dont always have to fit perfectly into the active site, most of the time its just roughly, and then it tightens to fit.
a single enzyme molecule can assist 5 million reactions in 1 minute.
with increased concentration of substrates, rate of reaction increases, however it slows if the amount of enzymes is constant. at the saturation point, the reaction rate of enzymes cannot go any higher because they are working at their limit. the only way to increase this after is to increase the concentration of enzymes.
enzymes tend to work better in warmer temperatures (around 45), this is called the optimum temperature. the reason why is because heat encourages vibration in molecules (kinetic energy man!) so change of collision is increased, thus reactions are increased. but too hot and the enzymes will begin to denature (active site becomes deformed and cannot fit substrates)
this also explains why magnesium will burn in fire but not rust in open air
also, different enzymes work in different pH levels. pepsin and rennin need acidic environments, amylase needs close to neutral (slightly basic) and trypsin (found in small intestine) needs alkaline environments.
last of all.. a common example of an enzyme is found in many living organisms (including animals, potatoes, apples, etc) is one that breaks down hydrogen biroxide (H2O2) which is poisonous, and is broken down water and oxygen.
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