Enzymes

Enzymes

1. enzymes = PROTEINS PRODUCED BY LIVING THINGS

   • enzymes are produced by living things (plants, animals, Ian, etc.) in order to
     • speed up chemical reactions
       • remember that.
   • living things have thousands of different chemical reactions going on inside them tout de la temp; they need to be carefully controlled in order to get the amounts of substances right
   • the instructions for making enzymes (or any other protein) are found in a cell's genes (i.e. DNA)

2. enzymes NEED THE RIGHT TEMPERATURE & pH

   • changing the temperature changes the rate of reaction
     • a higher temperature increases the rate at first
       • but if it gets too hot, some of the bonds holding the enzyme together will break
         • this changes the shape of the enzyme's über specific active site, meaning that the substrate no longer fits and the enzyme no longer works
           • the enzyme is said to be 'denatured'
   • it's the same (as the temperature) with the pH...
     • ...all enzymes have an optimum pH...
       • ...if the pH is too high or too low, it interferes with the bonds holding the enzyme together...
         • ...and the active site accordingly changes shape
           • again, the enzyme is said to be 'denatured'

3. enzymes = ÜBER SPECIFIC

   • and I mean über
   • the substrate = the molecule that's CHANGED in a reaction.
   • chemical reactions usually involve stuff being either joined together or split apart
   • every enzyme has an active site, where the enzyme is joined onto the substrate
   • as I said, über specific: each enzyme can usually only speed up one reaction
     • this is because, for an enzyme to work, a substrate must be the RIGHT SHAPE to fit into the active site
       • this is a bit like a lock and key, hence is called the (highly imaginative) 'lock and key' model
         • observe the beautifully plagiarized diagram to the left of me

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