Enzyme Lab Report Essay

Enzymes are catalytic proteins which speed up the rate of reactions. Every enzyme has a specific function – meaning, they can only bind to certain substrates. Because these enzymes are proteins, they can be denatured. Enzymes can be denatured by many factors, such as pH and temperature. This lab was divided into three parts which examined the effects of pH, enzyme concentration and temperature on the rate of which enzymes catalyze.
The pH is an index of hydrogen ions. In acidic conditions, where there is a high concentration of hydrogen ions, the hydrogen ions bind to negatively charged amino acids side chains, and the side chain loses its negative charge as a result. In an alkaline condition, where there is a low concentration of hydrogen ions, the ions will separate from the positively charged amino acid side chains, resulting in its loss of a positive charge. Because of this, pH has the ability to cease the function of enzymes. Because enzymes are proteins, its shape is
The rate of which reactions are catalyzed and products are formed from their substrates is directly proportional to the concentration of enzymes, in this case ALP. As seen in figure 4, the enzymatic activity increases with the increase of ALP concentration. According to Beer’s Law, also seen in the Analytical Techniques lab, there is a linear relationship between the concentration of a colored solution and its ability to absorb light. (Wilson et al, 2017). Referring to figure 3, the solution with the highest ALP concentration resulted in the highest absorbance. Once PnPP, a clear substance, reacts with ALP, it creates PnP as a product. PnP is yellow which is used as an index to determine that the reaction has taken place. Since the solution with the highest concentration had the highest absorbance, this means its color was a darker shade of yellow compared to the rest of the solutions containing lower enzyme