Keniel Yao

ENZYMES: RATE OF REACTION

DETERMINING FACTORS

Enzymes are biological catalysts that speed up the rate of reactions by lowering the activation energy that the substrate needs to react. Like any other reaction, changing environmental factors may lead to an increase/decrease in the rate of the reaction

COLLISION THEORY
This is due to the collision theory. Basically it states that when particles collide, they may react. By increasing the amount of collisions or the energy involved in them, they may be more likely to react However, due to the presence of enzymes, we have to take into account the effects of changing the environmental factors on the shape hence activity of the enzyme

CONCENTRATION

This makes sense according to the collision theory. The higher the amount of particles (for either substrate or enzyme), the higher the chance theyll collide, so the higher the chance theyll have the necessary energy to react. To compare the rates of reaction, its only fair to use the initial rate of reaction as due to the differences in reaction rates, the comparison will already be inaccurate as the amounts of substrate/enzyme will have varied

LIMITING FACTOR
One needs to take into account the limiting factor. Simply, if one keeps on increasing the concentration of the substrate (or the enzyme) without increasing the other, after a certain point where all the active sites are filled, or where there are enough active sites for all the substrates, adding increasing the concentration will not affect the rate of reaction. The case where the enzyme is working at its maximum possible rate as all the active sites are filled is called Vmax.

TEMPERATURE

Temperature (in C or K) is a measure of the average kinetic energy that the solution containing the substrate and enzyme has. The right shows an average sample of gas, showing by an arbitrary scale, the relative amounts of particles which have each set of energy

TEMPERATURE

Naturally, the higher the temperature, the more molecules will have the necessary activation energy needed for the reaction to occur Additionally, as the kinetic energy is increased, more collisions will occur in the same amount of time than that of a lower temperature

PH
pH level is a measure of the concentration of hydrogen or hydroxide ions in a solution. The lower the pH the higher the concentration of hydrogen ions, while the higher the pH the higher the concentration of hydroxide ions. pH does not directly affect the reaction as such, but has the potential to change the shape of the enzymes 3D arrangement hence active site.

ENZYME DENATURATION

This is largely affected by temperature and pH, though the presence of heavy metal atoms will cause denaturation too. Denaturation is the alteration of an enzymes structure including the active site. The rate of reaction will decrease depending on the extent of the denaturing/amount of enzymes denatured. Thus creating enzymes for industrial applications requires walking a thin line between optimum temperature and denaturation

TEMPERATURE AND DENATURATION

Generally, enzymes have an optimum temperature of 40C, though this varies depending on the organism. As temperature increases, the atoms gain more energy, causing initially for the active site to be altered to the optimum shape. However, when the optimum temperature is exceeded, the shape is altered too much and the active site will change extensively, to the extent where it is irreversible

PH AND DENATURATION

Each enzyme is adapted to its surroundings meaning many have different optimum pH. For example, pepsin has an optimum pH of 2 as it is in the acidic environment of the stomach The hydrogen/hydroxide ions will attract the R groups of the amino acids, altering the active site of enzymes which have ionic R groups. It is vital for the pH to be in the range of the targeted enzymes optimum pH or else one will witness little or no reaction