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5: Enzymes

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    234005
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    • 5.1: Enzymes
      An enzyme is a biological catalyst, a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without being changed or consumed in the reaction. A systematic process is used to name and classify enzymes.
    • 5.2: Enzyme Cofactors
    • 5.3: Mechanism of Enzymatic Catalysis
    • 5.4: The Kinetics of Enzymatic Catalysis
      In biological systems, enzymes act as catalysts and play a critical role in accelerating reactions many times faster than the reaction would normally proceed. Enzymes are high-molecular weight proteins that act on a substrate, or reactant molecule, to form one or more products.  Enzymes are highly specific catalysts for biochemical reactions, with each enzyme showing a selectivity for a single reactant, or substrate.
    • 5.5: Factos Affecting Enzyme Activity
      Initially, an increase in substrate concentration increases the rate of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction. As the enzyme molecules become saturated with substrate, this increase in reaction rate levels off. The rate of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction increases with an increase in the concentration of an enzyme. At low temperatures, an increase in temperature increases the rate of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction; at higher temperatures, the protein will denature. Enzymes have optimum pH ranges.
    • 5.6: Enzyme Inhibition
      An irreversible inhibitor inactivates an enzyme by bonding covalently to a particular group at the active site. A reversible inhibitor inactivates an enzyme through noncovalent, reversible interactions. A competitive inhibitor competes with the substrate for binding at the active site of the enzyme. A noncompetitive inhibitor binds at a site distinct from the active site.
    • 5.7: Regulation of Enzymatic activity
      Exquisite mechanisms have evolved that control the flux of metabolites through metabolic pathways to insure that the output of the pathways meets biological demand and that energy in the form of ATP is not wasted by having opposing pathways run concomitantly in the same cell.
    • 5.8: Enzymes Used in Industry


    5: Enzymes is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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