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Michele Harman
BI 112 Cell Biology
March 3, 2009
Lab Report Final Draft


The Rate of Reaction of Catecholase and Various pH Levels


Purpose of Experiment

To determine how the pH levels 3, 7, 9 affect the rate of reaction of the enzyme catecholase and its substrate catechol.

Introduction
The cells of living organisms are constantly performing thousands of chemical reactions to complete necessary functions and processes. These chemical reactions are required to happen extremely fast and precisely in order for cells to function properly. For cells to do this, they need to lower the activation energy. Activation energy is the amount of energy needed to start a chemical reaction. One way to lower activation energy is heat, but heat will speed up all reactions and not just the necessary ones, so it will eventually kill a cell if you add too much. The solution to the problem is enzymes. Enzymes are proteins that act as catalysts. Catalysts are molecules that speed up chemical reactions by lowering activation energy. They are not consumed during the chemical reactions. There are thousands of different types of enzymes that have different shapes and specific chemical reactions that they aid in. Since enzymes are proteins, they have a unique three dimensional shape. For each enzyme, there is a specific reactant that causes the enzyme to catalyze the chemical reaction. This reactant is called a substrate. On each enzyme there is a specific space where the substrate attaches. The area on the enzyme on which the substrate attaches is called the active site. Some Enzymes require more than one substrate. These enzymes have active sites that can hold the substrates in the right order so the chemical reaction can occur. For each enzyme, there are optimal conditions that cause the enzyme to catalyze reactions more efficiently. (1.) The efficiency in which the enzyme catalyzes...