Optimum_Temperature_And_PH_For_Enzyme_Alpha-amylase

Optimum Temperature And PH For Enzyme Alpha-amylase Introduction The purpose of this lab was to determine the optimum pH and temperature for the reaction of the enzyme a-amylase with the substrate starch. I worked with an enzyme and a substrate. An enzyme increases the reaction rate and lowers the activation energy of an efficient reaction. Enzymes are composed of proteins, which are amino acid chains (Campbell et al, 1999). The enzyme that I used was a-amylase; an enzyme extracted from barley seeds but also found in the human body. The reactant in an enzymatic reaction is called the substrate. I used a starch solution as the substrate in this experiment. An enzymatic reaction occurs when the enzyme and substrate collide and form an enzyme-substrate complex (Vliet, 1996). This complex quickly breaks down leaving the enzyme and a product or products. In this reaction of a-amylase with starch the product is glucose. This is the same reaction that occurs in the germination of barley seeds. The barley plant embryo produces a-amylase and releases it into the endosperm. The enzyme then reacts with starch to create glucose and nourishes the seed (Vliet, 1996). Since the purpose of reaction, temperature, experiment, enzyme, starch, ph, ml, water, optimum, a-amylase, substrate, spectrophotometer, rate, flask, fig, absorbance, using, zero, took, solution, section, reading, page, michael, lab, i2ki, hayden, error, data, 0492, transmittance, since, same, results, readings