Enzymes are biological catalyst, which are responsible for metabolic process, so for example they aid in the cell-to-cell communication. They speed up the rate of reaction by low energy activation, but they do not go to permanent changes, so they are not being used up. When they stop working they are recycled, so new enzymes are produced. Enzymes are large tertiary structure globular protein, which are result of their sequence of amino acids folding on themselves to produce a three-dimensional shape and this is maintained by hydrogen and disulphide bonds between the R group. The structure of the enzyme changes as the sequence of amino acids changes, so it will also have different function. Generally, the substrate binds to the enzyme’s active site. The binding of the …show more content…
Rather than being a rigid enzyme, this hypothesis states that the enzyme can change its shape to fit the substrate molecule. For two molecules to react they must collide with one another and for this to happen they must collide in the right direction (orientation) and with sufficient energy. This is known as the activation energy, which is the energy needed to overcome the energy barrier and make the reaction take place. As a rise in temperature increases the kinetic energy of molecules, they start to move around more rapidly and collide with each other more often, so the reaction take place faster. Therefore, the rate of reaction will increase as the temperature is being increased, but it will slowly decrease because the rising of the temperature causes the breaking of hydrogen bonds, resulting in a change of the shape in the enzyme and furthermore it will denature so it will not function anymore. As this happen, the substrate will not fit into the active site. There is a specific temperature at which an enzyme's activity is greatest and this is known as optimum temperature. In human enzymes, that happens around