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Enzyme catalysis is the increase in the rate of a process by an "enzyme", a biological molecule. Most enzymes are proteins, and most such processes are chemical reactions. Within the enzyme, generally catalysis occurs at a localized site, called the active site.
In some enzymes, no amino acids are directly involved in catalysis; instead, the enzyme contains sites to bind and orient catalytic cofactors. [30] Enzyme structures may also contain allosteric sites where the binding of a small molecule causes a conformational change that increases or decreases activity.
The katal (symbol: kat) is that catalytic activity that will raise the rate of conversion by one mole per second in a specified assay system. [1] It is a unit of the International System of Units (SI) [1] used for quantifying the catalytic activity of enzymes (that is, measuring the enzymatic activity level in enzyme catalysis) and other catalysts.
In enzymology, the turnover number (k cat) is defined as the limiting number of chemical conversions of substrate molecules per second that a single active site will execute for a given enzyme concentration [E T] for enzymes with two or more active sites. [1] For enzymes with a single active site, k cat is referred to as the catalytic constant. [2]
Enzyme kinetics cannot prove which modes of catalysis are used by an enzyme. However, some kinetic data can suggest possibilities to be examined by other techniques. For example, a ping–pong mechanism with burst-phase pre-steady-state kinetics would suggest covalent catalysis might be important in this enzyme's mechanism.
Nucleophilic catalysis: This process involves the donation of electrons from the enzyme's nucleophile to a substrate to form a covalent bond between them during the transition state. The strength of this interaction depends on two aspects.: the ability of the nucleophilic group to donate electrons and the electrophile to accept them.
Catalysis may be classified as either homogeneous, whose components are dispersed in the same phase (usually gaseous or liquid) as the reactant, or heterogeneous, whose components are not in the same phase. Enzymes and other biocatalysts are often considered as a third category. Catalysis is ubiquitous in chemical industry of all kinds. [6]
Although general-acid catalysis for breakdown of the First and Second tetrahedral intermediate may occur by the path shown in the diagram, evidence supporting such a mechanism with chymotrypsin [25] has been controverted. [26] The second stage of catalysis is the resolution of the acyl-enzyme intermediate by the attack of a second substrate.