Condensed Bio 12 Notes - Enzymes

Bio 12 notes
Subject Enzymes




#1: Enzyme
●​ Enzyme

○​ Biological catalyst -> proteins that speed up chemical reactions in the body
without being used up/permanently damaged

↳ do: speed up chemical reaction

lower activation energy

↳ don’t: get used up/consumed

​ get permanently changed by reaction

●​ Name often ends in “-ase” -> prefix tells what it acts on

, #2: Activation energy
●​ Activation energy

○​ Amount of energy needed to get chemical reaction to start

●​ Exergonic reaction

○​ Releases energy

○​ Still needs activation energy to begin

●​ Enzyme’s role

○​ Lower activation energy required

↳ makes reactions faster

↳ same reaction can happen without enzymes -> they’re just much slower, not
enough to sustain life

↳ doesn’t change if a reaction happens -> just the speed it happens at

●​ Analogy

○​ Activation energy -> hill a ball must roll over to get to the other side

○​ Enzymes -> make the hill smaller