Enzymes create chemical reactions in the body. They actually speed up the rate of a chemical reaction to help support life. The enzymes in your body help to perform very important tasks. These include building muscle, destroying toxins, and breaking down food particles during digestion.

Enzymes allow many chemical reactions to occur within the homeostasis constraints of a living system. Enzymes function as organic catalysts. A catalyst is a chemical involved in, but not changed by, a chemical reaction. Many enzymes function by lowering the activation energy of reactions.

Enzymes are classified into six categories according to the type of reaction catalyzed: Oxidoreductases, transferases, hydrolases, lyases, ligases, and isomerases. Structurally, the vast majority of enzymes are proteins. Also RNA molecules have catalytic activity (ribozymes).

A cyclic enzyme system is a theoretical system of two enzymes sharing a single substrate or cofactor, also referred to as a biochemical switching device. It has been used as a biochemical implementation of a simple computational device, acting as a chemical diode.

Four Steps of Enzyme Action

1. The enzyme and the substrate are in the same area. Some situations have more than one substrate molecule that the enzyme will change.
2. The enzyme grabs on to the substrate at a special area called the active site.
3. A process called catalysis happens.
4. The enzyme releases the product.

The effect of pH Enzymes are also sensitive to pH . Changing the pH of its surroundings will also change the shape of the active site of an enzyme. This contributes to the folding of the enzyme molecule, its shape, and the shape of the active site. Changing the pH will affect the charges on the amino acid molecules.

Enzymes are protein molecules that act as a biological catalysts in our digestive system. In our digestive system, Different enzymes are there to digest the different components of food. for example, => Amylase : It is a carbohyadrate splitting enzyme present in saliva in mouth as well as small intestine.

The three main proteolytic enzymes produced naturally in your digestive system are pepsin, trypsin and chymotrypsin. Your body produces them to help break down dietary proteins like meat, eggs and fish into smaller fragments called amino acids.

Enzymes are proteins, and they make a biochemical reaction more likely to proceed by lowering the activation energy of the reaction, thereby making these reactions proceed thousands or even millions of times faster than they would without a catalyst. Enzymes are highly specific to their substrates.

Proteins change shape as temperatures change. Because so much of an enzyme’s activity is based on its shape, temperature changes can mess up the process and the enzyme won’t work. High enough temperatures will cause the enzyme to denature and have its structure start to break up.

Enzyme catalysis is the increase in the rate of a process by a biological molecule, an “enzyme”. Most enzymes are proteins, and most such processes are chemical reactions. Within the enzyme, generally catalysis occurs at a localized site, called the active site.

The Catalytic Activity of Enzymes First, they increase the rate of chemical reactions without themselves being consumed or permanently altered by the reaction. Second, they increase reaction rates without altering the chemical equilibrium between reactants and products.

When an enzyme binds its substrate, it forms an enzyme-substrate complex. One of the important properties of enzymes is that they remain ultimately unchanged by the reactions they catalyze. After an enzyme is done catalyzing a reaction, it releases its products (substrates).

Induced fit enhances catalysis, as the enzyme converts substrate to product. What can happen when an enzyme’s conformation is significantly altered because of pH or temperature variation? the enzyme may no longer catalyze reactions it becomes denatured. What do you call an enzyme that lost it’s conformational shape?

Enzymes aren’t changed or used up in the reactions they catalyze, so they can be used to speed up the same reaction over and over again. Each enzyme is highly specific for the particular reaction is catalyzes, so enzymes are very effective.

Enzyme activity can be affected by a variety of factors, such as temperature, pH, and concentration. Enzymes work best within specific temperature and pH ranges, and sub-optimal conditions can cause an enzyme to lose its ability to bind to a substrate.

Several factors affect the rate at which enzymatic reactions proceed – temperature, pH, enzyme concentration, substrate concentration, and the presence of any inhibitors or activators.

Since enzymes are protein molecules, they can be destroyed by high temperatures. An example of such destruction, called protein denaturation, is the curdling of milk when it is boiled. If the temperature becomes too high, enzyme denaturation destroys life. Low temperatures also change the shapes of enzymes.