GCSE Biology - What are Enzymes?
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Enzymes are essential biological catalysts that accelerate chemical reactions without being consumed, unlike temperature, which can be harmful and inefficient. These proteins have unique shapes that determine their function, with models like the lock and key and induced fit explaining how enzymes bind to substrates at their active sites for specific catalysis.
Insights
- Enzymes are essential for cell function by accelerating chemical reactions without being used up, unlike temperature which can be harmful and ineffective.
- Two primary models of enzyme action, the lock and key model and the induced fit model, explain how enzymes interact with substrates to catalyze reactions with specificity and efficiency.
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What are enzymes?
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Summary
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"Enzymes: Essential Catalysts for Chemical Reactions"
- Enzymes are crucial for living cells to function properly as they speed up chemical reactions without being consumed in the process, unlike temperature which can be damaging and inefficient for this purpose.
- Enzymes, being biological catalysts made of proteins, have unique shapes that determine their function in catalyzing specific chemical reactions by binding to substrates at their active sites.
- There are two main models of enzyme action: the lock and key model, where the substrate fits perfectly into the active site, and the induced fit model, where the enzyme changes shape slightly to better accommodate the substrate, enhancing specificity and efficiency in catalyzing reactions.
