![]() On the other hand, cooling an enzyme down might make it less active. For example, heating an enzyme a little might increase its activity, but heating a protein a lot can cause it to change shape and stop working (a process called denaturing). The study of how enzymes change the speed at which a chemical reaction occurs is called enzyme kinetics.īecause enzymes are proteins, they are somewhat fragile, and their activity is often dependent on their temperature. For example, in the catalase reaction in Figure 1 above, hydrogen peroxide is the substrate and there are two products, water and oxygen. Specifically, an enzyme reduces the activation energy needed to convert a certain substrate into a particular product. As shown in this reaction, catalase is an enzyme that helps turn potentially harmful hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen.Įnzymes, like catalase, are proteins that speed up chemical reactions by reducing the amount of energy the reaction needs to take place.
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