Effect of Abiotic Factors on an Enzyme
ABSTRACT
Enzymes are biological catalysts; they cause reactions to happen that would not normally occur due to the activation energy that would be required. They bring together substrates and cause chemical reactions that are essential for life. Without enzymes life processes, and life in of itself, would not be possible. Enzymes are also special because very little of the actual enzyme is actually used up in the reaction. In this lab two different factors, temperature and pH, were tested to see what type of effect they would have on catalase, a potato enzyme that synthesizes H2O2. The data my group collected supported one hypothesis, that an acidic environment would not be conductive to enzyme behavior, and disproved another, that higher temperatures would yield greater enzyme byproduct production.
Introduction
Enzymes are biological catalysts and are necessary for life to occur. They bring together substrates and begin chemical reactions that would otherwise not happen due to the high amount of energy that they would require. Organisms are sensitive to their environments and must maintain homeostasis in order for their life processes to properly take place. This is due in part to the fact that enzymes can only function in certain pH and temperature levels specific to that enzyme. When levels rise or fall below these levels, it will affect the enzyme, and in turn the organism. At moderate level breaches the enzyme will not work properly, and at high level breaches the enzyme will break down, and the reaction will never occur. This could kill the organism that the enzyme belonged to.
In this lab, the reaction of a potato enzyme, catalase, was measured by use of bubble height. The two abiotic factors that we were using to test the catalase were high-low temperatures and high-low pH systems. For the temperature experiment I hypothesized that the higher temperature would yield more enzyme activity, and therefore a taller bubble column due to there being more
Enzymes are biological catalysts; they cause reactions to happen that would not normally occur due to the activation energy that would be required. They bring together substrates and cause chemical reactions that are essential for life. Without enzymes life processes, and life in of itself, would not be possible. Enzymes are also special because very little of the actual enzyme is actually used up in the reaction. In this lab two different factors, temperature and pH, were tested to see what type of effect they would have on catalase, a potato enzyme that synthesizes H2O2. The data my group collected supported one hypothesis, that an acidic environment would not be conductive to enzyme behavior, and disproved another, that higher temperatures would yield greater enzyme byproduct production.
Introduction
Enzymes are biological catalysts and are necessary for life to occur. They bring together substrates and begin chemical reactions that would otherwise not happen due to the high amount of energy that they would require. Organisms are sensitive to their environments and must maintain homeostasis in order for their life processes to properly take place. This is due in part to the fact that enzymes can only function in certain pH and temperature levels specific to that enzyme. When levels rise or fall below these levels, it will affect the enzyme, and in turn the organism. At moderate level breaches the enzyme will not work properly, and at high level breaches the enzyme will break down, and the reaction will never occur. This could kill the organism that the enzyme belonged to.
In this lab, the reaction of a potato enzyme, catalase, was measured by use of bubble height. The two abiotic factors that we were using to test the catalase were high-low temperatures and high-low pH systems. For the temperature experiment I hypothesized that the higher temperature would yield more enzyme activity, and therefore a taller bubble column due to there being more