What general effects would you expect the following changes to have on the rate of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction for an enzyme that has its maximum activity at body temperature (about 37°C)?
c. Adding an oxidizing agent, such as hydrogen peroxide

Question

What general effects would you expect the following changes to have on the rate of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction for an enzyme that has its maximum activity at body temperature (about 37°C)?

c. Adding an oxidizing agent, such as hydrogen peroxide

Accepted Answer

All right. Hello everyone. So this question is asking us what would be the likely impact on the rate of a biochemical reaction catalyzed by an enzyme that functions optimally at room temperature. That's about 25 °C if a reducing agent like diy three AOL is introduced or D TT for short. So before we talk about the specific scenario, that's given just recall a few facts about enzyme and enzyme structure in general because the vast majority of enzymes are proteins, right? And proteins are very sensitive to their structure. In other words, the structure of a protein is going to greatly impact its function or how it functions. And so changes in things like temperature. Ph the introduction of certain solvents or other compounds that could interact with the protein are going to have an impact on its structure. So from here, let's talk about the role of a reducing agent. Now reducing agents like the name implies catalyze reduction reactions. In other words, they reduce certain parts of the protein. Now, this can happen either by reacting with cysteine residues that create disulfide bonds or they can react with other amino acids. But the main point is that they catalyze reduction reactions. So because there's a reaction taking place on the protein itself, you can imagine that there's going to be a subsequent change in the protein structure. So now how does that impact the structure of the protein itself? Well, if the chemical properties of the protein are changing as a result of reactions, then there's always a possibility. In other words, it's highly likely actually that changes in the enzyme structure are going to impair its ability to bind. So just to go ahead and summarize that last point, changing the structure of an enzyme due to a reduction reaction, in this case, can impair the ability of the protein to bind to its substrate. And so if the substrate of a given enzyme cannot bind as well as it could in normal conditions, then the reaction rate is likely to decrease, right. The reaction cannot happen as quickly because of the fact that that the structure of the protein has been altered. Now, in addition to just altering the enzyme reducing agents can completely denature the enzyme. In other words, the three dimensional structure of the enzyme could completely collapse, which of course is going to decrease the rate of the reaction too. So with that weve arrived at our final answer. And so we can say that the rate of the biochemical reaction will decrease significantly and there you have it. And so with that being said, thank you. So very much for watching and I hope you found this helpful.

What general effects would you expect the following changes to have on the rate of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction for an enzyme that has its maximum activity at body temperature (about 37°C)?
c. Adding an oxidizing agent, such as hydrogen peroxide

Verified video answer for a similar problem:

Key Concepts

Enzyme Activity

Oxidizing Agents

Reaction Rate

What general effects would you expect the following changes to have on the rate of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction for an enzyme that has its maximum activity at body temperature (about 37°C)?c. Adding an oxidizing agent, such as hydrogen peroxide

Verified video answer for a similar problem:

Key Concepts

Enzyme Activity

Oxidizing Agents

Reaction Rate

What general effects would you expect the following changes to have on the rate of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction for an enzyme that has its maximum activity at body temperature (about 37°C)?
c. Adding an oxidizing agent, such as hydrogen peroxide