Maris Stella High School             Name: ___________________ 

GCE O Level Science Biology            Class (Index No.): Sec 3___ (       ) 
TYS Answer Scheme             Date: ________________ 

Unit 3.2 Answers (enzymes)

Paper 1
MCQ Questions
1. C 2. D 3. A 4. C 5. D 6. B 7. C 8. C 9. A

Paper 4 Section A
Structured Questions

*Add ‘the enzyme maltase was present’ into the question.

1ai) The starch has been broken down to sugars (glucose) which has moved out of the tubing.
ii) Amylase enables the breakdown starch to the sugar, maltose.
iii) To allow reaction to proceed at the fastest as 37°C is the optimum working temperature for the
enzyme amylase.

b) Add a few drops of iodine solution. If the iodine turns blue-black, starch is present.

c) The polysaccharide starch is too large a molecule to pass through the partially permeable
membrane of the visking tubing. However, glucose is a monosaccharide. The simple sugar, glucose
is small enough to pass through the membrane and diffuses out down the concentration gradient.

di) The starch would not have been broken down to sugars, so glucose would be absent outside of
the tubing.
ii) At 80°C, the enzyme amylase would have been denatured due to the extreme heat. Amylase,
being a protein, unfolds and loses its catalytic property thus it is no longer able to catalyse the
breakdown of starch to maltose. No sugar will thus be present outside the tubing.

2a) The proteins in the egg white has been broken down/hydrolysed/digested to peptones by the
enzyme pepsin.

bi) 40°C
ii) 40°C is closest to the optimum temperature for pepsin, and hence would have the fastest activity.

ci) At low temperatures, the enzyme pepsin is inactivated. As temperature increases from
10°C to 40°C enzymes molecules gain kinetic energy and this increases the number of collisions
between substrate and enzyme, increasing the chance of forming the enzyme-substrate complex,
therefore increasing the rate of reaction.
 ii) At 60°C, most of the enzyme pepsin has been denatured due to the high temperature and have
lost its catalytic property. Therefore there is little enzyme activity, only a small amount of protein is
digested leaving most of the solid egg white at the end of the experiment.
3ai) The enzyme amylase breaks down starch into the reducing sugar, maltose. As amylase is a
protein, its action is affected by temperatures.

ii) 37°C is close to the optimum temperature where enzyme activity is maximum. The rate of
reaction is the fastest, thus after 10 minutes, all the starch has been broken down to maltose indicated
by the negative starch test.
However at the low temperature of 5°C, the kinetic energy of the amylase and starch is low, amylase
is inactivated and thus rate of reaction is very slow.
At 20°C, amylase and starch would have gained more kinetic energy thus increasing the rate of
reaction. However both reactions were not complete (some starch is not broken down) at the end of
10 mins, thus starch was still present after 10 mins as indicated by the blue-black colour of the
iodine solution.

iii) At 60°C, some of the amylase has been denatured thus losing its catalytic property. Thus, some of
the starch remains undigested as indicated by the blue-black of the iodine solution.

bi) The iodine solution will turn blue-black.

ii)The optimum pH of amylase is near to neutral (pH 7). The addition of HCL will lower the pH thus
denaturing the amylase. The ionic and hydrogen bonds break unfolding the protein causing the active
sites of the amylase to be changed or lost. The amylase is thus no longer able to catalyse the reaction
and the starch remains undigested.

4ai) Enzymes are biological catalyst made of protein that alter the rate of chemical reactions, without
being chemically changed at the end of reaction.

ii) “Wear gloves when handling this product”, suggests this.

iii) As the label suggests, the optimum temperature is probably near 40°C. At temperatures beyond
optimum, enzymes start to denature. Therefore at 60°C, most of the enzymes would have been
denatured causing them to lose its catalytic properties, thus causing the enzymes to be ineffective in
clearing the stains.

iv) Water is used to activate the enzymes in the washing powder. Soaking heavily stained clothes
gives more time for the enzymes to work on the stains before washing, allowing he stains to be
removed.
Extra note: Water is required as during hydrolysis, water is required as a reactant in the reaction.

b) Protease hydrolyses/digests proteins in the stain breaking them into smaller soluble peptone
molecules, which allows for the removal of stains caused by protein substances.
Lipase hydrolyses/digests fats, breaking them down into smaller glycerol and fatty acid molecules,
which allows for the removal of stains caused by fats.
Extra note: Usually stains have high amount of protein (eg. Blood, curry) or sometimes fat
(eg. Oil/grease stains), which are more effectively removed using enzymes.

Paper 4 Section B
Essay Question 1

To investigate the effect of temperature on the activity of amylase. [10m]

1. Use a dropper to place drops of iodine solution on a white tile.

2. Label five test tubes 10, 30, 50, 70, 90 to indicate the temperatures at which they would be
incubated and add 10 cm3 of starch suspension into each of these tubes.
3. Use the five beakers provided to set up water baths maintained at temperatures of 100C,
300C, 500C, 700C and 900C respectively.
4. Place each of these tubes in their corresponding water baths and leave them for 5 minutes.
5. After 5 minutes, add 1cm3 of amylase solution into each test tube and shake the test tube
gently. Immediately after adding the amylase solution, start the stopwatch.
6. Use clean plastic droppers to remove one drop from each of the starch-amylase mixtures and
add them to the iodine droplets on the white tile to test for the presence of starch.
7. Repeat step 6 at regular intervals of 2 minutes for the next 10 minutes, and ensure that the
temperature of the water baths does not fluctuate too much.
8. For each of the test tubes, record the time taken for starch to be digested completely (when
iodine solution remains yellow).
9. Plot a graph of the time taken for the complete digestion of starch against temperature.
10. The shorter the time taken to digest the starch, the faster the rate of reaction indicating
greater enzyme activity.