Enzymes

• Enzymes are biological catalysts.
• Enzymes are made by all living cells.
• Enzymes speed up cellular reactions and remain unchanged in the process.
• Enzymes are specific to their substrate.
• Enzymes are made from protein
• Lock and key

  
• Enzymes fit to their specific substrate like a lock and a key.
• The place where an enzyme binds with its substrate is called the active site.
• Enzymes can break their substrate down in to smaller products, or they can build their substrates up into larger products.
• Enzyme activity can be increased with an increase in temperature
• Human body enzymes tend to work best at human body temperature (37 C).
• The temperature that an enzyme works best at is called the optimum temperature.
• If an enzyme is overheated it can change the shape of the protein.
• When an enzyme changes its shape it becomes denatured.
• Enzyme activity can also be affected by pH.
• Most enzymes have an optimum pH around neutral but the stomach enzyme pepsin has an acidic optimum pH
• A pH higher than the optimum can also denature an enzyme.
• If enzymes are denatured, their shape changes and this will affect the rate of the reaction.