Enzymes Noadswood Science, 2012

Enzymes & pH To investigate the effect of pH on enzymes Tuesday, January 15, 2019 To investigate the effect of pH on enzymes

Digestive System

Enzymes What are enzymes? Enzymes are biological catalysts - catalysts are substances that increase the rate of chemical reactions without being used up Enzymes are specifically proteins that are folded into complex shapes that allow smaller molecules to fit into them – the place where these substrate molecules fit is called the active site

Enzymes If the shape of the enzyme changes, its active site may no longer work – the enzyme has been denatured They can be denatured by high temperatures or extremes of pH *It is wrong to say the enzyme has been killed – although enzymes are made by living things, they are proteins, and not alive

Life In Cold Blood How does temperature affect feeding – consider cold and warm blooded animals… As the temperature increases, so does the rate of reaction The enzyme activity gradually increases with temperature until around 37°C

Enzymes & pH Changes in pH alter an enzyme’s shape Different enzymes work best at different pH values – the optimum pH for an enzyme depends on where it normally works E.g. intestinal enzymes have an optimum pH of about 7.5 and enzymes in the stomach have an optimum pH of about 2

Trypsin & pH Trypsin is an enzyme which breaks down protein If Trypsin is added to milk it will break down the milk, turning it from cloudy to translucent You need to carry out an experiment to find out how the pH of the medium affects how quickly the Tryspin breaks down the milk You will have 3 boiling tubes of milk (in different pH conditions) To each you will add some Tryspin You need to time how long the solution went from being cloudy to translucent

Trypsin & pH Take 3 boiling tubes, and fill them each with 10ml of milk – place them in a rack To each boiling tube add 20ml of a different pH solution (acidic, neutral and alkaline) Add 10ml of Trypsin to each boiling and begin the timer – time how long it takes for the solution to become transparent for each test Record all your results

Quiz