Describe some factors that may influence enzyme activity.?

Hey 🙂

The main factors affecting enzyme activity are:

Temperature, pH, enzyme concentration, substrate concentration and inhibitors.

Temperature: There is an optimum temperature that enzyme work at. The rate increases as temperature increases as the enzyme and substrate molecules increase in kinetic energy so more collision occur. After the optimum temperature the rate decreases, because the temperature is too high for the enzymes to work successfully – the high temperatures DENATURE (sort of deforming) the enzyme so it cannot work properly.

pH: Enzymes have an optimum pH at which they work. The pH affects the charge of the amino acids at the active site, so the properties of the active site change and the substrate can no longer bind.

Enzyme concentration: As the enzyme concentration increases, the rate of the reaction increases linearly (directly proportionally), because there are more enzyme molecules available to catalyse the reaction. At very high enzyme concentration the substrate concentration may become rate-limiting, so the rate stops increasing.

Substrate concentration: As the substrate concentration increases, the rate increases because more substrate molecules can collide with enzyme molecules, so more reactions will take place. At higher concentrations the enzyme molecules become saturated with substrate, so there are few free enzyme molecules, so adding more substrate doesn’t make much difference (though it will increase the rate of Enzyme-Substrate collisions).

Inhibitors: Inhibitors inhibit the activity of enzymes, reducing the rate of their reactions. There are two types; a competitive inhibitor which fights for the active site, reducing the enzyme substrate collisions, and a non-competitive inhibitor, which alters the shape of the active site not allowing the substrate to bind successfully to the active site.

Hope this helps!

Factors That Affect Enzyme Action

Factors That Affect Enzyme Activity