Is my understanding of enzymes correct?
I am doing an experiment, to analyze the effect of hydrogen peroxide concentration on enzyme activity of catalyse.
Enzymes:
Enzymes are proteins which are found in the cells that make up an organism. Enzymes have the primary function of synthesizing chemical reactions (anabolic and catabolic), faster. Without the presence of enzymes, organisms which require nutrients to survive would begin to degrade due the depletion of nutrients being absorbed, as enzymes are responsible for the process of breaking down food into nutrients for an organism.
Each substrate binds to a specific active site shape of an enzyme, the binding relationship between them is called an induced fit. Where initially a substrate has a high affinity for the active site of an enzyme, it begins to bind to the active site. Once binded, the shape of the active site changes, resulting in the enzyme going into a closed position. Once in the closed position the enzyme synthesizes the substrate, which produces a product, this results in the product having a low affinity for the active site.
Once the product is formed, the enzyme goes into the open position releasing the product, and as a result the enzyme's active site goes back to its original shape. This product can be used for a variety of applications, such as cellular processes.
Activation Energy:
As well as enzymes speeding up reactions, they also decrease the activation energy required to synthesize a substrate into a product. This important since less energy is being used to complete a chemical reaction. The activation energy is used to break the bonds of a substrate when it is in an enzyme.
As activation energy is absorbed, the bonds become increasingly unstable. When substrates are most unstable, they are considered to be in the transition state. Once the bonds are broken, this allows the molecular structure of the product to form.
Substrate Concentration:
As you increase the substrate concentration, initially the rate of reactions between the substrates and the enzymes increases. Eventually their relationship becomes constant.
To increase the rate of reactions further, you must increase the enzyme concentration. As increasing substrate concentration will not increase the rates of reactions since their is a limited amount of enzymes to synthesize the chemical reactions.
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