Jacqueline Kang
2-15-2015
Bio 203 Lab

Measurement of Acid Phosphatase Activity Under a Variety of Environmental Conditions

Introduction:

Biological enzymes are very important as they allow the human body to function and produce a wide variety of biochemical reactions that help sustain life. The main purpose of this lab is to understand the narrow optimal range and varying perimeters that allow these enzymes to optimally function. The enzyme, acid phosphatase, and the substrate p-nitrophenylphosphate were subjected to several different conditions, such as reaction time, varying amount of substrate concentrations, differing amounts of pH and varying reaction temperatures. The overall prediction for this lab would be that enzymes have a very limited range which they optimally function at, and by measuring the absorbance through a spectrophotometer the farther away from biological (human body conditions) the less the absorbance/ products would be in solution.

Materials and Methods:

All of the portions of this experiment have a full list of materials and methods provided in the lab …show more content…
6.0mL - 1.5mL = 4.5 mL

Figure 2: Reaction as a function of time vs absorbance.

Figure 2: The reaction was maintained at 37*C by heat blocks, it seems as though heat may have damaged the 60 minute reaction as the heated was unable to maintain a steady temperature and fluctuated quite a bit so the enzyme may have been damaged in the last reaction.

example calculations: y = mx+b y= .8753x + .0435
.018 = .8753x + .0435
-.0255 = .8753x x=-.0291 Figure 3: [p-nitrophenol] formed, mM vs time