Enzyme Structure, Function, and Kinetics

Vocabulary flashcards covering the fundamentals of enzyme activity, catalytic mechanisms, substrate interactions, affinity, and regulation.

Reactants

The molecules that participate in a chemical reaction.

Products

The molecules created as a result of a chemical reaction.

Enzyme

A type of protein that speeds up a chemical reaction by reducing the energy needed for the reaction to occur.

Catalyst

A substance that increases the rate of a reaction without itself being consumed by that reaction.

Trypsin

An enzyme that breaks large peptides into smaller peptides, breaks two bonds in proinsulin to produce insulin and peptide C, and digests food in the intestines.

Proinsulin

A protein with 86 amino acids that serves as the reactant cleaved by trypsin to form insulin and peptide C.

Substrate

A reactant molecule that participates in a chemical reaction involving an enzyme.

Active Site

The region of an enzyme that binds a substrate during a reaction, possessing the specific shape and charge needed to attract the substrate and promote the reaction.

Chemical Specificity

The ability of a protein to bind a specific type of molecule; it increases as the variety of molecules the protein can bind decreases.

Affinity

The likelihood that two molecules will interact, which stems from the electrical properties of their atoms and determines interaction strength.

Michaelis Menten Curves

Curves defined by a nonlinear mathematical function describing the relationship between substrate concentration and the rate of enzyme activity, used to compare substrate affinity between different forms of an enzyme.

Ligand

Any molecule that binds to a protein, either inhibiting or enhancing its function.

Allosteric Site

A site on an enzyme other than the active site where a ligand can bind, changing the enzyme's conformation and modifying its activity.