Enzymes Prac (copy)

Research Question

What effect does temperature have on Trypsin efficiency to break down Casein?

Independent Variable

temperature of the water baths (4℃, 20℃, 40℃, 60℃, 77℃)

Dependant Variable

rate of Trypsin reaction as measured by time taken for milk solution to go clear

Controlled Variables

volume 2 ml of 0.1% Trypsin concentrate, 4 ml of 4% low fat milk, 2 ml distilled water and time of incubation (5 minutes)

Aim

To investigate the rate of trypsin to break down Casein as measured by the time taken for milk to become clear at different temperature water baths.

Hypothesis

If the rate of Trypsin reaction is dependant on temperature, Trypsin will make the milk clear (break down Casein) at 39℃, the 40℃ water bath at the highest rate compared to low rates at the high (77℃) and low (4℃) temperatures which would experience enzyme denaturation and inactivity respectively

biological concepts

average rate of reaction 0 may reflect the denaturation enzymes undergo at high temperatures. While at 20℃, 40℃ and 60℃ Trypsin saw increasing and/or high rates of enzyme activity indicative of enzyme activity within tolerance and optimum range. At  4℃ there was also a recorded rate of 0, likely due enzyme inactivity at low temperatures.

Limitations

The nature of recording the rate of reaction assisted by testing cards and may be influenced by observer bias and be limited by time and technologically sophisticated tools. limited repeats

errors

validity

The lack of repeats and the aforementioned observation bias makes the validity of the experiment come into question as investigating the effect of temperature on Trypsin’s efficiency to break down Casein, is not enough.

accuracy

This is reflected in the accuracy of the results from the 4°C and 77℃  water baths as observations note differences between the enzyme and the control groups however, they were not able to observe the denaturation process in the 77℃ or the slow, time-consuming motion of the reaction in the 4℃ bath which would have taken a very long time. This means the values of 0 are not entirely accurate. However, the results as a whole are likely to be accurate as they match the general shape of enzyme activity and temperature graphs.

precision

The 40℃ temperature results are not precise as there are outliers at 243 and 142 seconds whereas the rest are around the 180 range. Other temperature groups are consistent to each other indicative of relative precision however the experiment should not be considered to be precise due to the presence of outliers and limited repeats.

improvements

Involve using

• technology to note when the solution is clear utilising cameras, coding or light sensors in order to eliminate observation bias.

• Conducting more repeats to  have a larger data pool to eliminate outliers from.