{"id":5351,"date":"2019-10-08T08:43:10","date_gmt":"2019-10-08T15:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/chemistry\/?page_id=5351"},"modified":"2020-03-17T23:35:31","modified_gmt":"2020-03-18T06:35:31","slug":"chapter-7-enzyme-kinetics","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/chemistry\/courses\/online-chemistry-textbooks\/ch450-and-ch451-biochemistry-defining-life-at-the-molecular-level\/chapter-7-enzyme-kinetics\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 6: Enzyme Principles and Biotechnological Applications"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chapter 6: Enzyme Principles and Biotechnological Applications<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

6.1 The Nature and Classification of Enzymes<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n

6.2 Enzyme Names and Classification<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n

6.3 Enzyme Structure and Substrate Binding<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n

6.4 Enzymes and Reaction Equilibrium<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n

6.5 Properties and Mechanisms of Enzyme Action<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n

6.6 Enzymes are Affected by pH and Temperature<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n

6.7 Enzymes are Sensitive to Inhibitors<\/span><\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

6.8 Allosteric Regulators and the Control of Enzyme Activity<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

6.9 Origin, Purification, and Uses of Enzymes<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

6.10 Industrial Enzymology<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

6.11 References<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
\n

6.1 The Nature and Classification of Enzymes<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Remixed from<\/em><\/strong><\/span> Peter K. Robinson<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Enzymes are biological catalysts (also known as biocatalysts) that speed up biochemical reactions in living organisms. They can also be extracted from cells and then used to catalyse a wide range of commercially important processes. For example, they have important roles in the production of sweetening agents and the modification of antibiotics, they are used in washing powders and various cleaning products, and they play a key role in analytical devices and assays that have clinical, forensic and environmental applications. The word \u2018enzyme\u2019 was first used by the German physiologist Wilhelm K\u00fchne in 1878, when he was describing the ability of yeast to produce alcohol from sugars, and it is derived from the Greek words en (meaning \u2018within\u2019) and zume (meaning \u2018yeast\u2019).<\/span><\/p>\n

In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, significant advances were made in the extraction, characterization and commercial exploitation of many enzymes, but it was not until the 1920s that enzymes were crystallized, revealing that catalytic activity is associated with protein molecules. For the next 60 years or so it was believed that all enzymes were proteins, but in the 1980s it was found that some ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules are also able to exert catalytic effects. These RNAs, which are called ribozymes, play an important role in gene expression. In the same decade, biochemists also developed the technology to generate antibodies that possess catalytic properties. These so-called \u2018abzymes\u2019 have significant potential both as novel industrial catalysts and in therapeutics. Notwithstanding these notable exceptions, much of classical enzymology, and the remainder of this essay, is focused on the proteins that possess catalytic activity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

As catalysts, enzymes are only required in very low concentrations, and they speed up reactions without themselves being consumed during the reaction. We usually describe enzymes as being capable of catalyzing the conversion of substrate molecules into product molecules as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n