Objectives

● Define enzymes as biological catalysts and describe how they function.

● Explain what the active site and how it determines the specificity of enzymes.
● Know the properties of enzymes and be able to interpret them in the given
context.
● Describe two models of enzyme functioning.
● Discuss the uses of enzymes.
● An enzyme is a protein/ macromolecule that acts as a
catalyst

● Catalyst is a chemical substance that speeds up the

reactions without being consumed by the reaction

● The large molecules of enzymes have a specific part,

called an active site, which is important for their
functioning. The substrate molecules bind to the active
site of the enzyme.
https://www.sciencephoto.com/med
ia/613033/view/induced-fit-enzyme-
model-animation
Enzymes Are Specific
 What namely do enzymes do?

● Activation energy is an amount of energy needed to start the reaction

● Enzymes lower the activation energy for the reactions
Carbohydrases break down complex carbohydrates to simple ones

Starch Amylase Maltose

Maltose Maltase Gulose + Glucose

Sucrose Sucrase Glucose + Fructose

Lactose Lactase Glucose + Galactose

Proteases such as pepsin and trypsin break down, first, long chains of amino acids in
protein molecules to shorter chains and then, peptidases separate amino acids.
Lipase enzyme breaks down triglycerides – fats and oils – to glycerol and fatty acids
Revision question/task.
● How many different enzymes have you encountered on these slides?
Factors affecting the
enzyme activity
 Temperature

● Enzymes in the human body work best at 36-37oC

● At high temperatures enzymes can be denatured
● At low temperatures the enzymes are inactive
pH
Industrial uses of enzymes
Lactose – free milk is produced by adding lactase enzyme to
the milk. It is still a cow’s milk but during processing
enzyme is added and lactose is broken down.
Another example of an enzyme used in food industry is pectinase,
which is added when juices are extracted from fruits in order to
break the plant cell walls and extract more and clear juices.
● Enzymes are also used in the production of so called biological washing powders by adding them
to detergents. These washing powders are considered to be more effective because most of the
stains come from foods or blood, hence contain large, insoluble macromolecules, which are
broken down to smaller and better soluble ones and washed away easily.
Revision question.
•What is the advantages of using enzymes in industry?
 Homework
Draw a table with 3 columns, name one column Carbohydrases, the next Proteases,
rd
the 3 one – Lipase and write down the names of each type of enzymes into the
corresponding column.
 Materials Terminology
Jones & Jones, Cambridge IGCSE Biology ● Catalyst
coursebook: chapter 5, pg 49-51 ● Enzyme
● Substrate
● Active site
● Digestion
● Key and lock mechanism
● Induced fit model