An investigation to determine how increasing the concentration of inhibitor Copper Sulpahte will affect the amount of juice pr

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An investigation to determine how increasing the concentration of inhibitor Copper Sulpahte will affect the amount of juice produced by pectinase from a given mass of apple

Hypothesis: I think that increasing the concentration of the inhibitor copper sulphate will decrease the ammount of juice produced by the enzyme pectinase.

I expect this to happen because as copper sulphate is an inhibitor (non-competitive one), it will reduce the break down of pectin found in the middle lamellae between the cell walls in the apple pulp. Enzyme inhibitors are molecules that interact in some way with the enzyme to prevent it from working in the normal manner. In this case, it attaches to a part of the enzyme stucture, other than the active site. When this happens, the shape of the whole enzyme may change, altering the shape of the active site. This prevents enzyme substrate complexes formation, which means the enzyme can no longer function as it should. Therefore if i increase the concentration of the inhibitor it is more likely that the inhibitor will attach to an enzyme structure, meaning that a smaller ammount of enzymes are hydrolysing the same amount of pectin molecules, making less juice each time.

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Once the non-competitive inhibitor binds to the enzyme, it changes the shape of the active site, making the substrate unable to fit in its active site and therefore working properly.

Enzymes: An enzyme is a protein that catalyzes or speeds up, a chemical reaction.They are biological catalysts. Like all catalysts, enzymes work by lowering the  of a reaction, thus allowing the reaction to proceed much faster. Enzymes may speed up reactions by a factor of many millions. An enzyme, like any catalyst, ...

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*** Although not complete this is a good start to an investigation on the effect of Copper Sulphate on the enzyme Pectinase. The scientific theory is well structured and gives appropriate detail on all aspects needed to carry out an investigation in this area. Unfortunately the investigation is incomplete and does not include any of the method / data / analysis / evaluation or conclusion; thus making it a good essay on this topic, rather than an investigation.