Bio Lab essays

Bio Lab essays Every minute there are thousands of chemical reactions occurring in cells that are controlled by enzymes. (Vodopich) Enzymes are biological catalysts that speed up chemical reactions. As catalysts, enzymes lower the amount of energy needed to trigger a reaction. Enzymes are proteins with their own shapes determined by amino acid structures. The active site complexes on these structures determine what specific changes a substrate (reactant molecule in a catalyzed enzyme) will go through becoming a different substance with a different shape. (Weiss 2001) During this experiment the enzyme catalase was used to reduce hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to water and oxygen. After adding aliqouts of reaction mixture we removed small amounts of sample at different time intervals we analyzed the molar concentration of H2O2 and the velocity of molar change per minute. Assaying denatured enzyme samples at different time intervals of 0, 0.5,1,1.5,and 2 minutes to review spectrophotometer readings of the c orresponding samples of H2O2. Our absorbency readings at 500 decreased from .921 at 0 minutes to 0.086 at 2.0 minutes. The concentration of H2O2 also decreased according to time, from .28 moles at 0 minutes to 0.026 moles at 2 minutes. Between 1 and 1.5 minutes the velocity of molarity change per minute peaked at a velocity of .16 and decreased to be .108 at 2 minutes. Confirming that with an adequate amount of subsrates, enzyme reactions increase. Accordingly depleted substrate reactions decrease with time. Graphically enzymes with an abundant substrate concentration rate appear linear with time. (Weiss 2001) Enzymes are catalysts, accelerate reaction rates, in Biological sequencesthat when left alone can speed up reactions 14-20 times while in ideal conditions such as 37 degrees celsius and neutral pH. Also enzymes are protiens which are made of specific amino acid sequences. The shape of an enzyme is determined by its amino acid sequence which controlt...