Description of the

Components of
Enzymes
• What is Enzyme?
• A substance produced by a
living organism which acts
as a catalyst to bring about a
specific biochemical reaction.
Enzymes are proteins that help
speed up metabolism, or the
chemical reactions in our
bodies.
• Enzymes are protein
macromolecules.
•They have a defined amino
acid sequence, and one
typically 100-500 amino acids
long.
•Has a defined three-
dimensional
structure.
• Enzymes are catalysts.
•Act as a catalyst to a
chemical or biochemical
reaction, with a defined
mechanism.
•They increase the speed of
a reaction, by 10^6 - 10^14
times faster than the rate of
the uncatalysed reaction.
•They are selective for a
single substrate.
•They speed up rate of
reaction by lowering the
activation energy (Ea).
•They are stereospecific,
meaning the reaction
produces a single product.
• Enzymes are "specific".
• Each type of
enzyme typically
only reacts with
one, or couple of
substrates.
• Some enzymes are more
specific from others and
will only accept one
particular substrate.
• Other enzymes can act on a
range of molecules, as long
as they can contain the types
of bond or chemical group
that the enzymes targets.
• Enzymes are reusable.
• It's not a reactant and are not used
up during the reaction once an
enzyme binds to a substrate and
catalyzes the reaction, the enzyme is
released, unchanged, and can be
used for another reaction.
• This means that for each
reaction, there does not need
to be a 1:1 ratio between
enzyme and substrate
molecules.
How enzymes work
Enzymes based upon the
class of organic chemical
reaction catalyzed:
1. Oxidoreductase - an enzyme
that catalyzes the transfer of
electrons from one molecule to
another.
2. Transferases - transfer of
functional group from one
molecule to another.
3. Hydrolases - breakdown of
a covalent bond using water.
4. Lyases - addition or
removal of functional group
to form a double bond.
5. Isomerases - structural
rearrangement of bonds within
a molecule.
6. Ligases - formation of a
covalent bond between two
large molecules.