Explain what is Enzymes?
Enzymes are organic substances that speed up, or catalyze, a chemical reaction. At a given temperature, molecules have varying amounts of energy, and some will react more slowly than others in bringing a reaction to completion. Catalysts speed up a chemical process by lowering the activation energy required for the reaction to proceed.
The enzyme orients a portion of itself called the active site so as to form a temporary bond to specific parts of the reactant molecules, or substrates, forming an enzyme-substrate complex. It is thought that the complex distorts the arrangement of charges on the substrate molecules slightly so that less energy is needed to complete the reaction. The active site may be either polar or non-polar. Enzyme-substrate bonds are weak bonds, such as ionic and hydrogen bonds that can be broken easily by random thermal motion.
Enzymes, like other catalysts, are not altered in the in the process, and can therefore successively catalyze other thousands of similar reactions if the reactants are present. However, enzymes are specific for only one or a few reactions. Because of their specificity, it is not surprising that most enzymes in living organisms are complex proteins. Enzymes are able to both break down molecules as well as build them up.