Name: Almendra Andrea Apaza Ticona

Exercise 8: Chemical and Physical Processes of Digestion: Activity 3: Assessing Pepsin Digestion of Protein Lab Report
Pre-lab Quiz Results
You scored 100% by answering 5 out of 5 questions correctly.
1. Where in the body does protein digestion begin? You
correctly answered: b. the stomach
2. The substrate for pepsin is
You correctly answered: d. protein and peptides.
3. In this activity the substrate you will be using to detect protein digestion is
You correctly answered: d. BAPNA.
4. Negative results with the negative controls
You correctly answered: d. are expected and validate the experiment.
5. A spectrophometer measures
You correctly answered: c. optical density.

10/21/14

page 1

Experiment Results
Predict Question:
Predict Question: At which pH do you think pepsin will have the highest
activity? Your answer : a. pH 2.0
Stop & Think Questions:
Which of the following tubes are negative control
tubes? You correctly answered: e. tubes 3 and 4
An optical density greater than zero indicates that
You correctly answered: e. BAPNA digestion has occurred and pepsin is
active. Experiment Data:
Tube No.
1
2
3
4
5
6

Reagent 1

Reagent 2

Pepsin
BAPNA
Pepsin
BAPNA
Pepsin
DeIonized Water
DeIonized Water
BAPNA
Pepsin
BAPNA
Pepsin
BAPNA

Reagent 3

Boiled

Time

Temp.

pH 2.0 Buffer
pH 2.0 Buffer
pH 2.0 Buffer
pH 2.0 Buffer
pH 7.0 Buffer
pH 9.0 Buffer

+
-

60
60
60
60
60
60

37
37
37
37
37
37

10/21/14

page 2

Optical
Density
0.00
0.40
0.00
0.00
0.03
0.00

Post-lab Quiz Results

You scored 100% by answering 4 out of 4 questions correctly.
1. Pepsin would be most active
You correctly answered: b. in the stomach.
2. Which two tubes validated the results of the experiment? You correctly
answered: c. tubes 3 and 4
3. With more enzyme activity the optical density
You correctly answered: a. increased.
4. If pepsin were digesting an actual protein substrate, the product would be
You correctly answered: c. peptides and amino acids.

10/21/14

page 3

Review Sheet Results

1. Describe the effect that boiling had on pepsin and how you could tell that it had that effect.
Your answer:
Como sabemos, las enzimas son protenas, por lo que cualquier cambio brusco de pH puede alterar su carcter
inico, afectando a las propiedades catalticas de las enzimas. Cuando los pH son extremos se puede producir la
desnaturalizacin de la enzima, por lo tanto su inactivacin.
2. Was your prediction correct about the optimal pH for pepsin activity? Discuss the physiological correlation behind your
results.
Your answer:
La pepsina es ms activa en un pH entre 2 y 4. Se desactiva permanentemente con un pH superior a 6
3. What do you think would happen if you reduce the incubation time to 30 minutes for tube 5?
Your answer:
tubo 5 contiene pepsina, BAPNA y tampon ph 7 cuya densidad optica es de 0.03, en el cual se utizo BAPNA para evaluar la
actividad de la pepsina cuya coloracion se vuelven amarillas

10/21/14

page 4