Pink/Gold Melanin

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Figure 1 shows a set of data that was collected to show the affect of time on the production of pink/gold melanin. The pink/gold melanin is absorbed in a spectrophotometer set at 475nm, which reflects the activity rate of polyphenol-oxidase. Polyphenol-oxidase is found in the potato extract in phosphate buffer ph6, which influences the production of melanin due to the interaction of 0.1% catechol and phosphate buffer pH6. The purpose of the phosphate buffer pH6 is to mimic the cell’s cytoplasm. Furthermore, the production of pink/gold melanin is already occurring due to the potato’s cells containing 0.1% catechol; therefore we want to observe how time can affect the rate of polyphenol-oxidase that will be producing pink/gold melanin. Figure …show more content…
The higher the concentration of polyphenol-oxidase, would lead to higher amounts of molecules in the solution, which can absorb more photons resulting to higher absorbance values. All deceleration curves except for our control variable are gradually increasing as time is passing by and levels off reaching equilibrium.
A molecular explanation for the results in figure 1 is that polyphenol oxidase is a catalyst that lowers the activation energy, which speeds up chemical reaction, to reach a transitional state leading to the formation of pink/gold melanin (Brooker (2014). If the activation energy is not lowered it will act as a barrier that will slow the reaction of products, which in this case is pink/gold melanin. By polyphenol oxidase lowering the activation energy, the
…show more content…
If there are high absorbance values, we can assume that there is higher enzymatic activity occurring. The cuvettes containing the potato extract of 0 mL, 1.0 mL and 2.0 mL had a slower production of melanin due to the restricted activation energy and time frame. It took longer for the substrate to convert the polyphenol oxidase to melanin and it didn’t reach a higher absorbance because the entire enzymes got saturated. These enzymes are behaving as catalyst in chemical reaction that are binding with substrates: this process is called enzyme substrate complex. (Brooker 2014) In order for an enzyme to enter a transition state, which is the state that the original bonds have stretched to their limits, they must be proceeding to an induced fit. Induced fit occurs when a substrate is highly bound to an enzyme which the enzyme will catalyze the substrate to produce products. As you can see in all the trend lines the absorbance values start to level off and not increase

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