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Jordan Werst
Lab Partners: Liz Harlow and Lexie Sabato
11 April 2016
Biology 101L Section 1
Unit 7: Enzymes: Week 2 Lab Report: The Effects of Heat on Enzymes
Introduction:
Enzymes are molecules that regulate the chemical reactions that occur in all living
organisms. Most enzymes are proteins that act as catalysts, which speed up chemical reactions by
lowering the activation energy. Enzymes bind to a substrate, forming an enzymesubstrate
complex. While bound, the enzyme helps the reactant/substrate transform into another substance.
The new substance, known as a product, is then released from the enzyme. Enzymes are neither
destroyed or altered during this process, so they can be reused again.
An enzyme’s speed can be affected by the temperature of its surroundings. The warmer
the temperature, the faster the reaction will be due to the lower activation energy caused by heat.
This experiment is expected to cause the rate of absorbance to increase due to heat. However, an
enzyme can be denatured, or unable to function properly, if exposed to heat that is too high.
Another factor that can affect whether or not a reaction happens successfully is whether or not
there is even enough activation energy to begin with (Erik Zipp and ChulWon Park 1997).
The purpose of this experiment is
to observe the varying absorbance that occur when
different temperatures are applied to Tyrosinase, an enzyme that catalyzes the production of
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melanin, which gives skin its color and browns fruit, in the cuvettes. The substrate being tested is
called DOPA, which changes to dopaquinone and then to dopachrome (Department of Biology
2015).
The enzyme placed in two of the three cuvettes was placed in a hot water bath heated by
a hot plate, at a temperature of 104 degrees fahrenheit. Given that heat increases the speed of ...