Enzymes

• Enzymes are proteins that act as biological catalysts, speeding up chemical reactions in living organisms.
• amylase is an example of a catabolic enzyme that breaks down starch into maltose
• a substrate is the substance an enzyme joins with
• The active site is the part of the enzyme that combines with the substrate
• The molecule that is produced by the action of an enzyme is called the product
• Enzymes are specific, meaning they will only react with one particular substrates
• denatured means the active site has been destroyed
• all enzymes have a specific temperature that they work best at, called the optimum temperature
• Inhibitors are chemicals that attach to an enzyme and destroys its shape
• Examples of enzyme inhibitors are nerve gases and antibiotics
• Bioprocessing is the use of enzyme-controlled reactions to make a product
• immobilised enzymes are enzymes that are attached to or trapped to an inert (inactive) material
• pepsin is an enzyme found in the stomach and has an optimum pH between 1 and 2
• to keep the pH constant in an experiment a buffer solution is used
• above a certain temperature the shape of the enzyme starts to change - in humans this temperature is above 37 degrees - above this temperature the rate of enzyme action begins to decrease