Enzymes

The student is expected to identify and investigate the role of enzymes.

There are many different kinds of proteins that perform a wide variety of functions
in every cell. Enzymes are a specific type of protein that performs a very important
function. Enzymes speed up and direct the chemical reactions in a cell. This means
that enzymes are responsible for maintaining a cells metabolism. The names of
enzymes end with the suffix ase (e.g. ligase, polymerase, and catalase).
Enzymes are able to speed up reaction
rates because they reduce the amount of
energy needed for the reaction to take
place. Without enzymes this initial energy,
the activation energy (EA), would keep
reactions from happening quickly enough
for cells to remain alive. By lowering the
activation energy, enzymes allow cells to
perform chemical reactions at a much
faster rate. Enzymes are not permanently
changed during this process, and they can
speed up the same reaction over and over
again. Substances that speed up chemical
reactions without being permanently
changed are called catalysts. Enzymes are biological catalysts.

The chemical reactants that enzymes act on are called the enzymes substrates.
These substrates attach to the enzymes active site. Enzymes will only attach to a
specific substrate which means that they can only catalyze one reaction. Because
of this, cells can have over 1000 different enzymes to complete all of the necessary
chemical reactions that a living cell needs. The compounds that are formed as a
result of the enzymes actions are called the products.
There are two main types of metabolic pathways that enzymes help to regulate.
Catabolic processes digest larger molecules to release energy and acquire the
materials needed to build the cells own molecules. Anabolic processes use energy
to synthesize larger molecules out of these building blocks. Anabolic reactions
include using amino acids to synthesize proteins and placing nucleotides into long
nucleic acid chains.