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)
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'
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