Enzyme Lab

Enzymes play a vital role in helping our body function. They act as biological catalysts and help speed up reactions that would otherwise take long periods of time to naturally occur. Enzymes help lower the activation energy required for the reactants to reach the transitional state from which then they can form products. However, enzymes do not change the free energy of the reaction. Enzyme’s ability to catalyze reactions comes from the shape of the active site on the enzyme. Enzymes are hyper-specific meaning that each enzyme can only catalyze one type of reaction. There are thousands of enzymes in your body to catalyze all the different types of reactions. The shape of the active site determines which molecules can bind to the enzyme.
In this experiment the substrate is going to be hydrogen peroxide(H2O2) and the enzyme is going to be catalase. Hydrogen peroxide(H2O2) is a product of aerobic cellular respiration and is considered a free radical. This means that too much of hydrogen peroxide can affect the organelles. In order to stop damages caused by hydrogen peroxide, the enzyme catalase changes hydrogen peroxide(H2O2) to water(H2O) and oxygen gas(O2). Catalase is present most animal cells. The reaction is ………………. Another key characteristic of enzymes is the ability of the enzyme to catalyze thousands of reactions. Enzymes do not get used up during the reaction and can keep catalyzing reactions till there are no more substrates. However enzymes are tertiary proteins structures and are very dependent on the environment in which they reside in. Many factors such as pH, temperature, and salinity can affect the shape of the active site on the enzyme and decrease the rate of the reaction. Many tertiary proteins such as enzymes depend on various weak ionic bond, hydrogen bonds, disulfide bridges, and hydrophobic interactions(van der
Temperature can also denature or effect the reaction rate of the enzyme. As you increase temperature the various bonds that help made the 3-D tertiary structure start to break apart as they absorb more energy. This also causes the active site of the enzyme to change shape and reduce the reaction rate. On the other hand, as you decrease temperature the substrates won’t come into contact with the active site of the enzyme as much and will reduce the reaction rate. Most enzymes have an optimal pH, temperature, and salinity. At the optimal levels the enzyme should perform at its fastest reaction rate possible. In our lab, the enzyme(catalase) performs at optimal level of pH 7. As you change the pH of the solution(independent variable) in which the enzyme resides in you will see a decrease in the reaction rate of the enzyme(dependent variable). You can measure this reaction rate by looking at how much oxygen is being released and calculating the rate of increase in(O2%/min). You will test three different pH levels in this lab which are pH 4, pH 7, and pH 10. You will have three trials for each level of treatment to gather accurate