the assignment

• title

  factors affecting enzymes
• aim

  to investigate how PH affects enzyme activity.
• Enzymes are a protein function that speed up cellular reactions without becoming changed, and have a substrate that is specific to them. The substrate locks in specifically to the active site, as they have complimentary shapes. There are two types of reactions that relate to enzymes: synthesis and degradation reactions.
• Degradation Reaction explanation


  This is when an enzyme and specific substrate (such as food particle) combine, fitting together perfectly. They then split into two parts due to various factors such as environmental conditions. This reaction would occur when breaking down food, producing nutrients.
• Another key thing about enzymes is that they have conditions for which they work at their best. This is called an enzyme’s optimum conditions. PH and temperature contribute to these conditions and they cannot function properly without the correct ones. Most enzymes work best at a temperature of 40 degrees and a PH of about 7. They can work within a range of this, which is called their working range, but if it continues to increase, the active site will lose its shape and the substrate may no longer be able to fit. This is called denaturation.
• Evaluation 


  I used a small range of PHs - only three - which limited the usefulness of the data found and decreased the reliability of the experiment. In the future, I would use a larger variety of PHs to make my conclusion more useful and valid.
• Source analysis

  The data i found and the source from online show similar things, as they increase until they reach an optimum PH and then begin to denature and decrease. One difference I found was that in my experiment, the optimum PH was 7. In the online source, the optimum PH is 4. I found much more activity at PH 7 than the online source did.
• In conclusion, I found that as the PH increased, so did the enzyme activity (height of froth) until the optimum, PH 7, was reached. Above 7, the enzyme began to denature and activity decreased.
• what does the degradation reaction diagram show

  how enzymes break down food into nutrients
• Experiment description

  In this experiment, I measured out 10ml of PH buffer and added it to a boiling tube as well as 3 drops of detergent. I then added the catalase with different PHs to the boiling tube, waited for one minute using a stop watch, and then measured the height of foam.