Enzyme/Kinetics

Enzymes are biomolecules produced in living organisms. They are biocatalysts in function and speed up specific biochemical reactions. Biochemical reactions are chemical reactions happening in the living cell often with the aid of enzymes. As catalysts,  enzymes can facilitate the same chemical reaction without being consumed. Enzymes are proteins and made of long chains of specific sequences of amino acids which fold into its unique shape. Enzymes have a cleft called the active site, which is the part of an enzyme to which substrates bind.  The active site is the region where a reaction is catalyzed. When a substrate is in proximity, the enzyme forms a complementary shape to the substrate in order to bind the substrate. This concept is also known as the induced fit model. The processivity of enzymes is determined by its activity or the number of units of substrate it can form from a substrate.

 

The enzyme activity is usually measured in a two step process using an enzyme assay. The assay can either measure on the disapperance of starch or the appearance of disaccharides. To measure either of these, the first step is to add a reactant, which for example enabels a color readout. In a second step, the color can be quantified spectrophotometrically and the enzyme activity measured.