Lactase Enzymes Lab Report

BIO 5 Lab Report: Lactase Enzymes

Enzymes are biological catalysts or assistants. Enzymes consist of various types of proteins that work to drive the chemical reaction required for a specific action or nutrient. Enzymes can either launch a reaction or speed it up. The chemicals that are transformed with the help of enzymes are called substrates. In the absence of enzymes, these chemicals are called reactants.
Enzymes are thought to have an area with a very particular shape. When a molecule of the right chemical for that enzyme comes along it will fit exactly into the shape. The region of particular shape is called the active site of the enzyme, this is where the reaction is known too take place. The molecule that the enzyme works on
There are a group of people who after childhood do not fabricate proficient lactase, which can impair the body’s capability to digest milk. These few people are known to be lactose intolerant and suffer from symptoms including cramps, gas, and diarrhea.
Lactase is known to be formed by the body. Dairy products have changeable levels of lactose, which affects how much lactase is required for proper digestion. Ice cream, yogurt, and milk contain a significant amount of lactose - even though for difficult reasons yogurt often does not generate symptoms in lactose - intolerant people.
For the 50 million Americans who have been diagnosed with lactose intolerance, many just avoid dairy at all cost in order for them to prevent any painful side effects. Research shows lactose intolerant individuals normally have a higher health risk for osteoporosis, weak bone density, hypertensions, and several cancers such as breast and colon
We got a glucose result of 800 which is between the colors green and dark green. The next result was positive as well. The glucose result was 200 and was between the levels of light green and green. Our last result for test 2 as you can see on figure 2 was in fact negative, proving that the pH levels can affect the lactase activity.

Figure 2: Effects of pH on lactase activity

In the last experiment, by looking at Figure 3, you can see that the result for glucose was typically low. For our first result we got a positive level of 50, which was halfway between yellow green and light green. Second result had a level of 200 and was also a positive reaction. Our last result was negative. This proves that the temperature can affect lactase activity.

Figure 3: Effects of temperature on lactase activity

For procedure 1, we hypothesized that lactose will have high specificity and sucrose will have a low specificity. We also predicted that the lactase will have no effect on the sucrose because it is not its corresponding enzyme, however the lactose will break down its substrate glucose. While performing this experiment we realized that our hypothesis and prediction was in fact correct. As mentioned before, the glucose level in lactose was high and the sucrose was low. This meant that the sugar and enzyme corresponded to one another or is