Enzymes and their function

Chemical Reactions

A chemical reaction is a process that changes one set of chemicals into another set of chemicals.

Energy in Reactions

Energy is released or absorbed whenever chemical bonds form or are broken.

Because chemical reactions involve breaking and forming bonds, they involve changes in energy.

Because matter and energy are conserved in chemical reactions, every organism must have a source of energy to carry out chemical reactions.

Plants get their energy from the sun.

Animals get their energy from eating plants or other animals.  

Activation Energy

Chemical reactions that release energy do not always occur spontaneously.

Chemists call the energy that is needed to get a reaction started the activation energy.

What are Enzymes and how is it related to Activation Energy

Enzymes

Some chemical reactions that make life possible are too slow or have activation energies that are too high to make them practical for living tissue.

These chemical reactions are made possible by catalysts.

A catalyst is a substance that speeds up the rate of a chemical reaction.

Catalysts work by lowering a reaction's activation energy.

Enzymes are proteins that act as biological catalysts.

Enzymes speed up chemical reactions that take place in cells.

Enzymes act by lowering the activation energy

Notice the blue line is without an enzyme and red line if 

with the enzyme notice how the activation energy is lowered to 

start to reaction and thus the process of going 

from reactants to products if faster.

Enzymes are very specific, generally catalyzing only one chemical reaction.

For this reason, part of an enzyme’s name is usually derived from the reaction it catalyzes.

HOW DOES THIS WORK:

Enzymes act as a Lock and Key mechanism. The enzyme is the key. It only works with a specific substrate

The enzyme and substrates remain bound together until the reaction is done and the substrates are converted to products.

The products of the reaction are released and the enzyme is free to start the process again

• Enzymes play essential roles in:
• regulating chemical pathways.
• making material that cells need.
• releasing energy.
• transferring information.