...Abstract Enzymes are molecules that act as catalysts in the regulation of chemical and biological reactions in humans and other species. Every organ in humans depends on enzymes, as they are essential for optimal health. Most enzymes are protein molecules, which increase the reaction rate and function best under optimal conditions or temperatures related to the environment and the host organism where the enzyme is found. In this experiment, the digestive enzyme amylase was used in order to determine the optimal temperature for enzyme function from human and fungal (Aspergillus oryzae) sources in various temperatures. The digestive enzyme amylase that will be tested is responsible for the breakdown of the polysaccharide starch into the monosaccharide maltose. In addition, using Iodine as a test marker for the presence of starch, the ability of amylase to break down starch to maltose was also investigated. In the presence of starch, Iodine turns from yellow to black. To that end, human saliva, containing amylase, and fungal amylase were each added to separate test tubes along with a mild starch solution and placed at various temperatures as follows, 0C, 40C, 60C and 95C. The mixture of amylase and starch was then plated onto spot wells containing Iodine as a marker for starch which yielded a color reaction based on the amount of starch versus the break down product, maltose. The results showed that human amylase functions optimally at 40C as demonstrated by an abrupt color...
Words: 956 - Pages: 4
...produced will increase and eventually level out. This is because the hydrogen peroxide is substrate specific to catalase which is found in the liver solution tab. The two products react to create an active site which produces water and oxygen. Therefore, as the amount of hydrogen peroxide increased then the displaced oxygen will increase but eventually it should level out due to the effect of substrate concentration on enzyme activity (Allot, 99-100, 2014). Catalase is an enzyme that is found in the liver of animals and it aids to catalyze the breakdown of hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen (Allot, 99-100, 2014)....
Words: 623 - Pages: 3
...Effect of a factor on the activity of an enzyme Research Question: How does pH effect the activity of the enzyme amylase and the hydrolysis of starch? Hypothesis: Amylase is an enzyme that acts on starch. pH is capable of altering the structure of the active site centre in the enzyme leading to denaturation. At each pH, the enzyme activity would be relatively different. Ideally the optimum pH is 6.0 when the enzyme works best and the fastest, however if the pH is higher or lower the hydrolysis of starch will be slower. Changing the pH above the optimum will sometimes lead to denaturation of the enzyme and the change in shape of the active site. (http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/practical-biology/investigating-effect-ph-amylase-activity) Variables: Independent: The pH of the buffer solution. Dependent: The time taken for the solution to turn an opaque (lighter) blue from dark blue. Controlled: The volume of iodine solution; the volume of starch solution; the volume of buffer solutions; the volume of amylase solution; the temperature at 40°c; the time it is left in the water bath; and the concentration of the solutions. I will be using a water bath to keep the temperature constant, and to manipulate my independent variable, I will be using pH 4, 5, 7, 9, 10 by adding different pH buffer solutions with the amylase. * 50ml Amylase solution * 100ml Starch solution * 100ml Buffer solutions with pH 4, 5, 7, 9, 10 * 20ml Iodine solution Apparatus: ...
Words: 528 - Pages: 3
...In lab 7, Factors affecting Enzyme Activity, there are two parts; Effects of concentration on enzyme activity and effects of temperature on enzyme activity. In the first lab with concentration the materials needed to preform this experiment will be a LabQuest, Vernier O2 Gas Sensor, Nalgene bottle, enzyme suspension, 3.0% H2O2 , stop watch, goggles, three test tubes and dH2O and a 10 ml graduated cylinder.The first step in the procedure is to obtain three test tubes and label them 1, 2, and 3. With a graduated cylinder, fill the three tubes with 5 ml of 3.0% H2O2 and 5 ml of water. Add five drops of enzyme suspension to test tube labeled 1. Wait thirty seconds and pour solution into a Nalgene bottle. Place the O2 gas sensor into the bottle...
Words: 369 - Pages: 2
...Factors Affecting Enzyme Activity Analysis of Enzyme Activity: Catalase and Tyrosinase Introduction to Neurotransmitters: Acetylcholinesterase Abstract: A series of three labs were combined to observe the effects of some common biological enzymes: Catalase, Tyrosinase, and Acetylcholinesterase (AChE). Enzymes are catalytic proteins, that when present in a chemical reaction, are able to lower the action potential needed to create the reaction without being destroyed or altered themselves in the process. In Part A, my hypothesis stated that when Catalase is combined with H2O2 the rate of conversion to water and oxygen gas should double when 5-10 drops of enzyme is added and quadruple when 10-20 drops are added. In Part B, my hypothesis stated that increases in enzyme concentration or buffer pH the substrate of the final product will yield increased substrate, also, if the substrate concentration is increased then the enzyme will be less diluted, the buffer pH will increase, or there will be a temperature increase. In Part C, my hypothesis stated that tacrine will have an inhibitory effect on AChE, and that those effects will increase as the level of concentration increases. In all three labs I postulated that increases in temperature and concentration levels and would increase the rates and decrease time to form chemical reactions. We setup each lab with a series of increased concentrations and a control trial using DiH2O. We observed the results using the...
Words: 3917 - Pages: 16
...Enzyme Activity In Living Tissue Lab Jaida Dieckman November 23, 2015 Background The studies done during this lab were the enzymes and there role is having proteins that are used as catalysts in living things. Also, substrates are reactants that connect to and enzymes active site. The role of the enzymes catalase in a cell is it breaks down the substrate hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide is produced during normal metallic activities in the cell, but it is poisonous to the cell if it accumulates. Eventually, hydrogen peroxide will break down into water and oxygen. The accumulation of the poison in the cell would damage the cell long before it breaks down naturally. The cell naturally produces the enzyme catalase to react with the hydrogen peroxide and break it down as rapidly as it is produced to avoid destruction of the cell. The purpose of this lab was to analyze the enzymes in living tissues, represented by the pieces of liver. Also, hydrogen peroxide was used to demonstrate these effects. Procedure In this lab was tested five different substances. In part A the purpose was to observe untreated normal catalase reaction by using small tweezers to obtain two pieces of liver and one piece of each of the other tissues. Using a small beaker 30ml of hydrogen peroxide was obtained. A graduated cylinder was used to measure 3ml of hydrogen peroxide into 5 different test tubes. Then used an expo marker to mark the top of the hydrogen peroxide. A piece of liver was put into...
Words: 670 - Pages: 3
...Title How Different Environmental Variables Affect Enzyme Activity Purpose The purpose of this lab is to see if changing the temperature, pH, or concentration of enzymes effects catalase activity. Background Enzymes are in every living thing. Enzymes are catalysts they speed up chemical reactions by reducing the amount of energy needed to perform them. Without them most chemical reactions would happen much too slow for life to exist. Enzymes are very special and each is designed to do one specific thing. One type of enzyme per type of chemical reaction that needs to be catalyzed. There are multiple steps to and enzyme catalyzing a reaction. First, the enzyme floats around and collides with substrates. Substrates the reactants in a chemical reaction. These substrates fit perfectly into the active site of the enzyme, the enzyme then catalyzes the chemical reaction that it is designed for, and this causes the enzyme to momentarily change shape. This new shape is called the “induced fit”. The enzyme then releases the products. The enzyme reverts back to its normal shape once it releases the products and is not permanently changed by the reaction. It then floats around and does it again and again and again. Most enzymes end in the suffix –ase. Temperature is a measure of heat. It is the disorderly movement of molecules. This movement also creates energy. When an object is hot its molecules are moving a lot more and a lot faster than in an object that is cold...
Words: 1617 - Pages: 7
...Effects of Temperature, pH, Enzyme Concentration , and Substrate Concentration on Catecholase Introduction Enzymes are biological proteins that speed up the reaction rate of a chemical reaction. They work in the human body by lowering activation energy making certain that reactions will initiate. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. In this case, factors that influence the activity of an enzyme are called modulators. If modulators activate enzymes the reaction rate catalyzed will significantly increase, but if the modulator inactivates enzymes the reaction rate catalyzed will significantly decreased (Silverthorn, 2004). The potentially disastrous influence of temperature, pH, enzyme concentration, and substrate concentration on enzymes and other proteins is one reason why these modulators are very strictly regulated by the body (Silverthorn, 2004). Temperature, a measure of the intensity of heat, is an important factor in the activity of enzymes. The velocity of an enzymatic reaction is influenced by temperature. This is because substrates collide with active sites frequently in the presence of rapidly moving molecules. In addition, although these molecules do move rapidly the speed of the reaction drops sharply. In short, thermal agitation causes protein molecules (enzymes) to denature ( breakdown of protein structures). All enzymes have an optimal temperature at which reaction rates go fastest without denaturing the enzyme (Campbell and Reece, 2002) pH...
Words: 1991 - Pages: 8
...Logan Hornberger Physiology 330 2/17/2016 Acclimation of metabolic enzymes in reptiles It is necessary for reptiles and all other animals to maintain a state of homeostasis within the body. I fluctuation of enzymes within the body must happen in order for such animals to maintain relative body temperatures needed for survival. Reptiles that undergo changes in body temperature over the seasons will demonstrate fluctuations in the activity of metabolic enzymes; specifically lactate dehydrogenase, citrate synthase, and c-oxidase. Body temperature is a key factor in increasing the rates of specific temperature-sensitive physiological functions. The rates of enzymatic reactions correspond directly to temperature. As seen in fish, body temperatures adjust to changing water temperatures by adjusting overall storage and function of enzyme-catalyzed metabolic processes. In freshwater turtles, enzymatic activities were slowed during winter months compared to warmer summer months. Thermoregulation along with control of enzymatic activity allows for maintenance of body temperature within a narrow range. Researchers looked for a correlation between body temperature in different seasons compared to the activity of lactate dehydrogenase, citrate synthase, and c-oxidase. Researched tested these variables in alligators located in the wild at Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge. Researchers used a sample of 14 males and 16 females in the summer and 17 males and 14 females in the winter in this experiment...
Words: 592 - Pages: 3
...Introduction Enzymes are protein molecules that catalyze chemical reactions in all living organisms. Enzymes allow living organisms to carry out complex chemical activities at low temperatures, but can’t cause a reaction that hasn’t occurred in their absence. Also, enzymes are thought to speed up reactions by bringing reacting molecules together to increase the chances that a reaction will occur (Worthington Biomedical Corporation, 2015). Each enzyme has a specific active site where the substrates attach. Many factors can affect enzyme activity such as temperature, pH, and the presence of inhibitors (John W. Kimball, 2014). The purpose of this lab was to examine factors affecting the enzyme function of peroxidase. In the 19th century French chemist Louis Jacques discovered catalysts. Catalysts are substances that enable a chemical reaction without participating in it, which led to specifically peroxidases. The structure of peroxidase is a very large enzymatic protein, and has complex molecules with complicated shapes involving multiple folding’s. The activity of peroxidase is dependent on pH. It exhibits maximum activity at a pH between 6.5 and 7.0. The activity of the enzyme is reduced when pH levels are increased. Peroxidase promotes the oxidation of various compounds naturally of peroxides, where hydrogen peroxide is reduced to form water (Wikimedia Foundation, 2015). Also peroxidases break compounds down into harmless substances by adding donor molecules. During this lab...
Words: 1834 - Pages: 8
...Title: What is the effect of temperature on Enzyme activity? Purpose: Enzymes are proteins that speed up chemical reactions in cells. They break down molecules called substrates. Each enzymes have only one substrate that breaks down. Enzymes are produced in the cells of the body and affect the rate of almost all the chemical reactions which take place in living organisms. The rate of enzymes activity is influenced by temperature, pH, and substrate concentration. The purpose of this lab was to determine the affects of enzyme activity under specific temperature changes, pH values and substrate concentration. Since heat increases the rate of most chemical reactions, the addition of heat causes faster molecular movement. Most enzymes active in living tissue becomes denatured, their secondary or tertiary protein structure breaks down, at the temperature above 40 degrees C. In the effects of pH, it is expected that the changes in pH would have an effect on the action of enzymes. Lemon juice helps keep the apple from growing, because its full of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) and it has a low acidic pH level. But extreme high levels of low pH values can result in a complete loss of enzymes activity thus leaving the apple to brown. The effects of substrate concentration, an enzyme substrate complex is formed when a substrate fits into active of an enzyme. The velocity, the rate of speed, at which the enzymes works will increase until it reaches a maximum. If the substrate...
Words: 310 - Pages: 2
...for a reaction is called the activation energy. Enzymes are used to reach the correct activation energy in plants. They lower the activation energy to the correct amount for the reaction to take place. Certain enzymes catalyze certain reactions, which means that many enzymes to operate the cell. On each cell, there is a spot where the substrate will attach to the enzyme (active site). When the substrate and the enzyme come in contact with each other, it creates an enzyme-substrate complex. The enzyme and substrate then connect. This connection causes the pace of the reaction to speed up, causing a chemical reaction. Once the reaction has taken place, the enzyme is released out so it can perform more reactions with more substrates. Without enzymes, a cells metabolism would not be fast enough for the organism to function in the correct manner. This is evident when pertaining to the enzyme, amylase, which is found in corn. Amylase is in a group of enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of starch into smaller carbohydrate molecules, such as maltose. It is the also the digestive enzyme needed to digest carbohydrates. Corn is an important crop farmed in the US. Amylase is used in germinating seeds by helping the seed grow. It gives farmers a chance to create the biggest production of corn with the smallest amount of input. Can we prove that temperature affect enzyme activity? In this lab, we tested to see if the rate of enzyme activity was affected by an increase in temperature. Our...
Words: 1524 - Pages: 7
...Temperature can affect a lot of different factors hence its effect on enzyme activity is very complex. It affects the speeds of molecules, the activation energy of the catalytic reaction and the thermal stability of the enzyme and substrate. At low temperatures (say at around 0 centigrade) the rate of enzyme reaction is very slow. The molecules have low kinetic energy and collisions between them are less frequent and even if they do collide the molecules do not posses the minimum activation energy required for the reaction to occur. It can be said that the enzymes are deactivated at low temperatures. An increase in temperature increases the enzyme activity since the molecules now possess greater kinetic energy. The rate of enzyme activity is highest between 0-40 centigrade and this increase is almost linear. After 40 the rate of reaction starts to decrease. This is because the increase in temperature after 40 does not increase the kinetic energy of the enzyme but instead disrupts the forces maintaining the shape of the molecule. The enzyme molecules are gradually denatured causing the shape of the active site to change. Temperatures above 65 centigrade completely denature the enzymes. There are some enzymes known as ‘extremophiles’ found in thermophillic organisms. They retain activity at 80 centigrade. Test each separate temperature more than twice: This is to prove that each temperature is affecting the enzymes the same way each time and that the previous result was not...
Words: 283 - Pages: 2
...The premise of this lab is to measure our enzymatic activity of Alkaline phosphatase, we began measuring our activity by applying different substrate concentration of p-nitrophenyl phosphate in relationship to absorbance over the span of 70 seconds, the data obtained in table 5.1, the different substrate concentration 0.9mM, 0.675mM, 0.45mM, 0.225mM, 0.09mM, 0.045mM, 0.0225mM. keeping our enzyme constant at 100μL, what we concluded is a significant decrease on the absorbance as we decrease the substrate concentration, for example our initial reading of absorbance at 0.09mM concentration was 0.558, the same reading at 0.0225mM was significantly lower (0.176) thus indicating that substrate concentration does influence absorbance if the enzyme concentration remains constant....
Words: 504 - Pages: 3
...Properties of Enzymes focused on the variations of reaction rates amongst enzymes subjected to various circumstances such as temperature, pH levels, different concentrations of substrate, salt concentrations, Metal Copper Sulfate and lastly, the presence of an Enzyme Inhibitor. The assigned section of this laboratory for our efforts was the effect of temperature variations on enzyme reactions. To perform the experiment, we used a spectrophotometer to monitor the baseline catalase activity when they are placed in these two temperatures. In this way, absorbance can be measured over time to monitor catalase activity of the main baseline reaction. Our results showed that temperatures at higher degrees led to being inactive, whereas those at lower degrees lowered the reaction time. This comes to show that each enzyme can have a different optimal temperature and this experiment helped us to understand how reaction rate can be affected by temperature change. Introduction Thousands of complex biological processes are constantly taking place within our bodies. We require material transport, energy synthesis, and the manufacturing of various proteins, hormones, and other molecules (Source 1). Almost all of these everyday processes rely on the function of enzymes to take place. Enzymes are specifically grouped according to their function, and this information can often provide us with clues regarding what type of reaction that enzyme will catalyze (Source 2). An enzyme can only react...
Words: 1763 - Pages: 8
