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The Effect Of Enzymes On The Enzyme Of A Reaction

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1a. Enzymes are proteins, which speed up reactions – such as a “browning” reaction. We know that an enzyme in fruits is responsible for making them “brown” after being cut. We also know that the fruits do not “brown” prior to being cut. A reason that the fruits don’t brown before being cut could be that something in the air triggers the “browning” enzyme in the fruit. Therefore, when the fruit is cut, it is possible that the huge increase of oxygen from the air could trigger the “browning” enzyme.

1b. Enzymes are proteins that act as biological catalysts. A catalyst is something that speeds up a reaction without changing its form. Enzymes speed up reactions by lowering the activation energy of a reaction. The activation energy of a …show more content…

pH and temperature also effects enzymes. If an enzyme is not at its optimal pH or optimal temperature, it will not work as well. This is seen when looking at the browning fruit. If lemon juice is put on the fruit or the fruit is put in a cold temperature it does not brown. Lemon juice is known to be very acidic (much more than a piece of browning fruit) so the addition of lemon juice would upset the optimal pH of the browning enzyme and stop it from working. We know that most browning fruits (like apples) don’t grown in the cold, which means that they have a warmer optimal temperature. Therefore, putting an apple in a cold place (like a refrigerator) would alter its optimal temperature and stop the browning enzyme from working. 2a. The reason that the drug DNP was so harmful is that is stopped cellular respiration from being successful in cells. Cellular respiration is the process, which all cells do in order to make energy. This energy is called ATP. In a healthy cell, cellular respiration will produce approximately 36 ATP. However, the drug DNP resulted in only 4 ATP being made. The reason this happened was that DNP caused the phospholipid bilayer of the mitochondrial inner membrane to become leaky to H+ ions. Cellular respiration has three steps: glycolysis, the krebs

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