Environmental Factors That Influence Enzyme Activity

Enzymes are protein molecules that occur in all living things on earth and enable chemical reactions. Enzymes not only provide an alternate pathway for a chemical reaction, with a lower activation energy, they also bring substrates together in an optimal orientation, thereby speeding up the rate of reaction (Slide Share 2016). In an enzyme catalyzed reaction, the substrate (reactant) binds to the active site and forms and intermediate substance known as the enzyme-substrate complex with the specific enzyme. Now, the substrate can be changed (it may be broken down, or combined into something new), and form a new product. The enzyme then releases the product and will return to its original state after the reaction is complete. It is now available to bond with other substrate molecules. There are a variety of factors that affect the rate of enzyme activity including temperature, pH, enzyme concentration, and substrate concentration. Increasing the temperature generally increases reaction rate because the molecules are moving faster, and are more likely to collide (Boundless). If the enzyme changes shape because of dramatic changes to temperature the active site may no longer bind to the correct substrate, and the rate of reaction will decrease. The acidity of the environment can change the protein shape as well. Dramatic changes to pH …show more content…
H2O2 is a harmful by product of metabolism. The purpose of the catalase is to increase the speed of the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide into oxygen and water (Reviewmylife 2008). The purpose of this experiment was to determine the effect of substrate volume (H2O2), on the rate of production of oxygen. In this experiment, we use different volumes of the substrate, hydrogen peroxide, to see how it affects the rate of reaction using the potato as a source of the enzyme catalase. We can measure the rate of reaction by measuring the amount of oxygen