Class Notes
Topic: Enzymes
TEG VIRTUAl
Enzymes are proteins that help molecules react with one
What are enzymes?
another
Their monomers are amino acids.
Enzymes are used by cells to trigger and control
chemical reactions.
Without enzymes, several reactions in cells would never
occur or happen too slowly to be useful.
In digestive enzymes, often end in “-ase”
It is the process of changing one set of chemicals
(reactants) into another set of chemicals (products) by
What is a chemical
rearranging the atoms.
reaction?
Reactants’ bonds are broken and new ones are formed in
the products.
What is a catalyst? It is a substance that speeds up the rate of a chemical
reaction.
It lowers the activation energy.
It participates in the reaction but doesn’t change itself;
therefore it can be used over and over.
What is activation It is the amount of energy needed to start a chemical
energy? reaction.
Catalysts speed up chemical reactions by lowering their
activation energy.
Enzymes are catalysts because they lower the activation
energy by holding molecules together to either help them
bind (synthesize) or help them break apart (decompose).
Enzymes bind to or break molecules called substrates.
What is a substrate? These substrates are the reactants that are catalyzed by
the enzyme.
What is the active site? Each substrate and enzyme has a specific shape,
therefore enzymes bind to substrates based on shape.
The site on the enzyme where the substrates bind is
called the active site.
What is the Lock and Key Enzymes bind to the substrates based on their
Hypothesis? complementary shape.
The fit is so exact that the active site and substrates are
compared to a lock and key.
Most digestive enzymes are named for the foods
(molecules) they help react—lactase helps break down
lactose (milk sugar)
