The Rate of Enzyme Reactions

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BIOL 130-017

Room: B2 151

Time: Wed 930AM - 12:20AM

Date of Experimentation: 11/04/09

The Rate of Enzyme Reactions

Introduction

The purpose of this lab was to investigate what factors affect the direction of an enzyme reaction. The variables tested in this experiment were substrate concentration, enzyme concentration and reaction time. Enzymes are important biological catalysts that are required to drive chemical reactions for normal cell function. A catalyst is a substance which promotes chemical change without being consumed in the reaction. (Hasselberger, F.X. 1978) They are also important metabolic mediators, responsible for every reaction in the cell. (Karp, G. 2007) In this experiment two types of enzymes were used to test the variables of the experiment. The enzymes were salivary amylase and phosphorylase.

Enzymes are used to accelerate the rates at which a favourable chemical reaction proceeds, however there are factors that affect the effectiveness of the enzyme activity. First, all of the chemical reactions take place at an active site. This is the part of the enzyme molecule that is directly involved with the binding of the substrate. Substrates are reactants bound by an enzyme. (Kuby, S.A. (1991).