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.

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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. Reagent 1 Reagent 2 Reagent 3 Boiled Time Temp. Optical

Density
1 Pepsin BAPNA pH 2.0 + 60 37 0.00
2 Pepsin BAPNA pH 2.0 - 60 37 0.40
3 Pepsin Water pH 2.0 - 60 37 0.00
4 Water BAPNA pH 2.0 - 60 37 0.00
5 Pepsin BAPNA pH 7.0 - 60 37 0.03
6 Pepsin BAPNA pH 9.0 - 60 37 0.00

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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.

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Review Sheet Results
1. Describe the effect that boiling had on pepsin and how you could tell that it had that effect.
You did not answer this question.

2. Was your prediction correct about the optimal pH for pepsin activity? Discuss the physiological correlation behind your
results.
You did not answer this question.

3. What do you think would happen if you reduce the incubation time to 30 minutes for tube 5?
You did not answer this question.

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