The effect of substrate concentration on enzyme activity

Determination of Rate of Enzyme Activity of Catalase
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Determination of Rate of Enzyme Activity of Catalase
Background
Enzymes are organic catalysts that are used to increases the rate of a biochemical reaction. They are mainly made of proteins. However, ribonucleic or deoxyribonucleic acids may also act as enzymes under specific circumstances (Kraut, Carroll, & Herschlag, 2003). Enzymes act by lowering the activation energy of the substrates to form products. Activation energy is defined as the minimum energy required for substrates to combine, and get converted to its respective products. Enzymes lower this activation energy and speeds up a biochemical reaction (Stroppolo et al., 2001). Enzyme activity is defined as the potency of the enzyme, in converting substrates into their respective products, as a function of time (Danson &Eisenthal, 2002).
Therefore, less the time required and more the amounts of substrate converted/or products formed indicates that the enzyme activity for a particular enzyme is high. The enzyme acts through catalytic sites that are known as active sites. These sites can undergo conformational changes, which helps the substrates to combine easily, to form the respective products (Hammes, 2002). Enzyme activity depends upon various factors. These include concentration of substrates, temperature and pH conditions, under which the reaction takes pla…