Hi I need someone to explain what a enzym is please help?

Question

I know that a enzym helps you to digest food but what else does it do

Answer 1

Enzyme is a protein that use in our body to undergo chemical reaction, like digestion, glycolysis ; and also acts as a catalyse to accelerate the chemical reaction. Normally the name of enzyme end with -ase. For example amylase, protease that use in digestion; pancreatic lipase that break down the dietary fats.

The characteristics of enzyme:
1. Enzyme can be reused. It involves in the metabolic pathways but it does not consume during/after the process. Evertime after enzyme reacts with substrate to form product, it will then left and bind to another substrate. If i'm not mistaken, one enzyme can bind 10,000 substrates per second (cool isnt it).

2, Enzyme is highly specific. It only function in a right chemical reaction. Like protease and amylase only use to break down the peptide bond of starch to glucose. It cant works to hydrolyse fat. This is because enzyme is a 3D shape thingy that can only binds to a suitable substrate with shape that can fix that enzyme in. DIff enzyme or substrate have diff shape. Just like a key and a lock.
Thus, our body have many diff kinds of enzyme to work in diff metabolic pathway.

3. Enzyme reaction is reversible. EQ: Enzyme + substrate <====> product. Enzyme can bind with substrate to form product and it can binds with product to form substrate as well. There is something bout bond strength that can prevent product formed return to substrate at the normal reaction.

Enzyme has lots of function. It can also accelerate chemical reaction to support our body need. Or else, the reaction works so much slower that cannot support the sustain of lives.

For other uses, enzyme like amylase can use as detergent in washing machine to remove the stain like starch residues; Trypsin use to predigest baby food; Protease to remove the cloudiness of beers during storage. and Papine to soften the meat, etc.

Answer 2

Enzymes are proteins that catalyze (i.e. accelerate) chemical reactions. In these reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process are called substrates, and the enzyme converts them into different molecules, the products. Almost all processes in a biological cell need enzymes in order to occur at significant rates. Since enzymes are extremely selective for their substrates and speed up only a few reactions from among many possibilities, the set of enzymes made in a cell determines which metabolic pathways occur in that cell.

Like all catalysts, enzymes work by lowering the activation energy (ΔG‡) for a reaction, thus dramatically accelerating the rate of the reaction. Most enzyme reaction rates are millions of times faster than those of comparable uncatalyzed reactions. As with all catalysts, enzymes are not consumed by the reactions they catalyze, nor do they alter the equilibrium of these reactions. However, enzymes do differ from most other catalysts by being much more specific. Enzymes are known to catalyze about 4,000 biochemical reactions.[1] Not all biochemical catalysts are proteins, since some RNA molecules called ribozymes also catalyze reactions.

Enzyme activity can be affected by other molecules. Inhibitors are molecules that decrease enzyme activity; activators are molecules that increase activity. Many drugs and poisons are enzyme inhibitors. Activity is also affected by temperature, pH, and the concentration of substrate. Some enzymes are used commercially, for example, in the synthesis of antibiotics. In addition, some household products use enzymes to speed up biochemical reactions (e.g., enzymes in biological washing powders break down protein or fat stains on clothes; enzymes in meat tenderizers break down proteins, making the meat easier to chew).

Answer 3

An enzyme is a protein that catalysis or speeds up an organic chemical reaction in the body. we all have hundreds of different ones. They often end with -ase. Lipase helps digest fat. Lactase helps digest lactose, amylase helps break down glucose and so on.

Answer 4

An enzyme is a catalyst which speeds up reactions within living organisms.

Protein controlling biochemical reactions: any complex chemical produced by living cells that is a biochemical catalyst.

Answer 5

Enzymes are proteins that catalyze (i.e. accelerate) chemical reactions, so basically they increase the rate of the reaction, whatever it may be.

Answer 6

Its a protein which acts as a catalyst in a specific biochemical reaction.

Answer 7

an enzym is a zym thats at the end of the road.
surely thats a zym?

Answer 8

Look it up in Wikepedia and it will tell you everything you want to know.