Trypsin, a peptidase that hydrolyzes polypeptides, functions in the small intestine at an optimum pH of 7.7 to 8.0. How is the rate of a trypsin-catalyzed reaction affected by each of the following conditions?
a. changing the pH to 3.0

Question

Trypsin, a peptidase that hydrolyzes polypeptides, functions in the small intestine at an optimum pH of 7.7 to 8.0. How is the rate of a trypsin-catalyzed reaction affected by each of the following conditions?
a. changing the pH to 3.0

a. changing the pH to 3.0

Accepted Answer

All right. Hello everyone. So this question says that amylase is an enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of starch into sugars in the human mouth and pancreas its optimal activity is at a ph of 6.7 to 7.0. What would be the effect on the rate of an an A mola catalyze reaction? Excuse me, if the PH was adjusted to 4.5. So first and foremost, recall that the vast majority of enzymes are proteins, right? And amylase is no exception. Now, recall that one thing to understand about proteins is that their structure is very much correlated with their function, right? The structure of a protein gives rise to its specific function. And so it's because of this relationship that proteins are very sensitive to changes in temperature changes in Ph and even the solvent that the protein is in can affect its structure and therefore its function. So why does this happen? Right. Well, recall that proteins are made up of several amino acids, right. These amino acids have side chains that have different properties to them. They can be nonpolar, they can be neutral polar or they can have a charge to them at their ph, right at their normal Ph. And so these different polarities, right, the different interactions that can take place between amino acids is what determines the three dimensional structure of a protein. So when talking about something like a change in ph, what you could do, for example, is disrupt the charges of certain amino acids. So if you disrupt the charges, then maybe ionic interactions of the protein itself are disrupted. And therefore, protein structure is affected when talking about changes in temperature, a change in temperature can disrupt hydrogen bonds that also hold the protein together, thereby affecting its structure and its function. So what happens now if the ph that amylase or the ph of the solution that amylase is in, is adjusted to 4.5. So first of all, the PH is decreasing significantly, right, the normal Ph of amylase is slightly basic to neutral or excuse me, slightly acidic to neutral because the normal range is from 6.7 to 7. And now the P is becoming vastly more acidic. In other words, the PH is now way beyond the optimal range of amylase. And so what happens as mentioned before? Right, if we were to change the ph, then the ionization of certain amino acids within the protein does change, right, because now you're adding more protons to the environment which is going to affect the charges of certain amino acids. So if ionization is changing what you're doing is disrupting ionic interactions that may be present in the protein or even partial ionic interactions. Partial charges are also going to be affected. And so from here, we can imagine how significant of an impact this is going to have on amylase, right, on the rate of the ayase catalyze reaction. So to be specific, it's going to decrease. So essentially, right, we would say that the rate of the ala catalyze reaction oops wood decrease significantly, it's going to decrease significantly because now the structure of amylase has been affected by the change in Ph and there you have it. So with that being said, thank you so very much for watching and I hope you found this helpful.

Trypsin, a peptidase that hydrolyzes polypeptides, functions in the small intestine at an optimum pH of 7.7 to 8.0. How is the rate of a trypsin-catalyzed reaction affected by each of the following conditions?
a. changing the pH to 3.0

Verified video answer for a similar problem:

Key Concepts

Enzyme Activity and pH

Trypsin Function

Reaction Rate and Environmental Conditions

Trypsin, a peptidase that hydrolyzes polypeptides, functions in the small intestine at an optimum pH of 7.7 to 8.0. How is the rate of a trypsin-catalyzed reaction affected by each of the following conditions?a. changing the pH to 3.0

Verified video answer for a similar problem:

Key Concepts

Enzyme Activity and pH

Trypsin Function

Reaction Rate and Environmental Conditions

Trypsin, a peptidase that hydrolyzes polypeptides, functions in the small intestine at an optimum pH of 7.7 to 8.0. How is the rate of a trypsin-catalyzed reaction affected by each of the following conditions?
a. changing the pH to 3.0