What is the effect of temperature pespin activity and effect of ph on pespin activity?

Question

in regards of using boiled eggs- cutting them into four equal pieces and placing 1 piece in each test tube. 2 pieces are covered with pepsin in dilute acid. One goes into the incubator and the other in the refrigerator. the other two pieces are covered with pepsin in alkali and one piece goes in the incubator and the other in the refrigerator.

Answer 1

Pepsin in a protein that digests other proteins. It does this by cleaving at specific amino acid bonds in other proteins. Pepsin cleaves at the carboxy-side of aromatic amino acids, such as phenylalanine and tyrosine. By breaking up a large protein into smaller proteins, called peptides, animals can better digest food. And this is the role of pepsin - it is a digestive protein (or protease).

So, knowing that pepsin is a digestive protein, you can probably guess what will happen here. Pepsin is in our body. Our bodies are at 37 C, the same temperature as the incubator (most likely). As such, this means that the egg (which is protein) that's in the incubator will be "digested" (degraded or "chewed up") more than the egg that's in the cold (or refrigerator). Also, pepsin is a digestive protein. Our stomach is full of what? Acid! Acid means a low pH. So that means that pepsin works well in acid - in fact, it's activated by HCl (our stomach acid)! Hence, the egg covered in dilute acid will also see more degradation than the one in base (alkali). If you had an egg covered in acid and placed in the incubator, you'd see even more digestion than with acid or heat alone.

Hope that helps!