Question

Describe the effects that enzymes can have on substrates.

Answer 1

What do you about know enzymes so far? To give an idea here's a real-life example: People who are lactose intolerant have this condition because they don't have enough enzymes (Lactase) and so you remain with too much lactose and that leads to gastrointestinal issues. Soo...What do you think an enzyme is suppose to do here?

Answer 2

Bearing in mind that enzymes are function-specific proteins, their main function is to catalyse a reaction within the body but remaining unchanged themselves. This may be through breaking down a chain of molecules, for example starch into smaller, more manageable chunks that can be readily used in the body.

Substrates are the material or substance on which an enzyme acts. In the example used above, this would be starch (broken down into glucose molecules, which is then absorbed into the bloodstream).

So in conclusion, one of the effects could be breaking down a substrate into smaller molecules.

Another type of enzyme could catalyse a reaction in a different way, i.e. lowering the activation energy. The activation energy, according to the collision theory, is the minimum kinetic energy that two particles must have going into a collision in order for a reaction to happen. (If the kinetic energy isn't high enough no reaction will take place, and sometimes this happens).

An enzyme lowers this minimum energy (activation energy) so that there can be more reactions that happen - less energy is required for a reaction to happen, therefore the average rate of reaction increases.

Hope that answered your question!

Answer 3

yes thank you so much!

Answer 4

No worries! :)