Biology and Physic Experiment

Experiment 10 – Enzymes
Enzymes are proteins that act as catalysts for biological reactions. Enzymes, like all catalysts, speed up reactions without being used up themselves. They do this by lowering the activation energy of a reaction. All biochemical reactions are catalyzed by enzymes. Since enzymes are proteins, they can be denatured in a variety of ways, so they are most active under mild conditions. Most enzymes have optimum activity at a neutral pH and at body temperature.
Enzymes are also very specific – they only act on one substrate or one class of related substrate molecules. The reason for this is that the active site of the enzyme is complementary to the shape and polarity of the substrate. Typically, only one kind of substrate will “fit” into the active site.
In this experiment, we will work with the enzyme amylase. This enzyme is responsible for hydrolyzing starch. In the presence of amylase, a sample of starch will be hydrolyzed to shorter polysaccharides, dextrins, maltose, and glucose. The extent of the hydrolysis depends on how long it is allowed to react – if the starch is hydrolyzed completely, the resulting product is glucose.
You will test for the presence or absence of starch in the solutions using iodine
(I2). Iodine forms a blue to black complex with starch, but does not react with glucose. If iodine is added to a glucose solution, the only color seen is the red or yellow color of the iodine. Therefore, the faster the blue color of starch is lost, the faster the enzyme amylase is working. If the amylase is inactivated, it can no longer hydrolyze starch, so the blue color of the starch-iodine complex will persist.
You will also test for the presence of glucose in the samples using Benedict’s reagent. When a blue solution of Benedict’s reagent is added to a glucose solution, the color will change to green (at low glucose concentrations) or reddish-orange (at higher glucose concentrations). Starch will not react with Benedict’s reagent, so the solution will remain blue.
Effect of Enzyme Concentration
During catalysis, the first step is the substrate (S) binding to the enzyme (E), giving an enzyme-substrate complex (ES). This is an equilibrium reaction, and will be favored by a high concentration of enzyme and/or substrate. After the substrate is bound, the reaction takes place, and then the product is released.
E + S ⇔ ES  E + P
Effect of Temperature
All reactions are faster at a higher temperature. However, enzyme-catalyzed reactions become slower or stop if the temperature becomes too high, because enzymes become denatured at high temperatures. Therefore, enzymes have an optimum temperature that corresponds to maximum activity. (At higher or lower temperatures, the activity of the enzyme is lower.) The optimum temperature is usually around body temperature (37°C).
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Effect of pH
Each enzyme has an optimum pH. Above or below an enzyme’s optimum pH, its activity is lower. The optimum pH of a particular enzyme corresponds to the pH of its natural environment. For many enzymes, this corresponds to pH values of around 7. For pepsin, which is active in the stomach, the optimum pH is 2 (the pH of the stomach).
Trypsin, which is active in the small intestine, has an optimum pH of 8 that matches the pH of the small intestine.
Effect of Inhibitors
Inhibitors are substances that slow down or stop enzymes. Competitive inhibitors are molecules that are very similar to the substrate, so they can bind to the enzyme but cannot react. They compete with the substrate for the active site of the enzyme.
Noncompetitive inhibitors are molecules that are not similar to the substrate and therefore do not bind to the active site. They do, however, bind to a different location on the enzyme and change the shape of the active site so that the substrate can no longer bind.
Irreversible inhibitors form covalent bonds to the enzyme and therefore cannot be removed. Safety Precautions:
• Wear your safety goggles.
Waste Disposal:
• All waste must be placed in the inorganic waste containers (which have a blue label) in one of the fume hoods.
Procedure
Important: read the entire procedure and make sure you understand it before you start this experiment. Before you start each part of the experiment, make sure you will have enough time to complete it. Advance planning is very important for this experiment.
Preparation:
Constant temperature water baths will be needed for this experiment. The laboratory has a large water bath that can be set to 37°C, and everyone will use this water bath. You will also need a low temperature and a high temperature water bath, and you can make your own. For the low temperature bath, use a 250-mL or 400-mL beaker, fill it
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about halfway with tap water, and add some ice to the water. The temperature of this bath when it comes to constant temperature should be between 0 and 5°C.
To make the high temperature water bath, fill a 250-mL or 400-mL beaker about two-thirds full and heat it until it boils. (You can heat it on a hotplate or on a Bunsen burner.) When it boils, you can reduce the heat, but keep it boiling. The temperature of this bath should be close to 100°C.
You will need some 1% starch solution for each part of the experiment. Shake up the bottle of starch, and collect about 50 mL of the solution in a small beaker.
You will also need some of the iodine reagent for each part of the experiment. If dropper bottles of the iodine reagent are available, obtain one of them. If there are no dropper bottles, collect a small amount of this reagent (about 3-5 mL) in a small beaker, and get a clean dropper that you will only use for this iodine solution (to avoid
contamination).