Properties of

enzymes
Areej ahmad
Fst evening
12
 What an enzyme is?
• Enzymes are biological catalysts which activate the biochemical reactions.
• The molecules upon which the enzymes act are called substrate.
• The enzyme converts the substrate into different molecules called
products.
• Co-factor: a non protein part of enzyme required for the biological
activity is called cofactor.it has two types;
1. Co-enzyme
2. Prosthetic group
• Coenzyme: cofactor that are bound loosely to the
enzyme.
• Prosthetic group: cofactor that are bound tightly to the
enzyme.
• Apo-enzyme: the protein part of an active enzyme is
called apo- enzyme.
• Holo-enzyme: the active enzyme composed of apo-
enzyme and a co-factor.
Properties of
enzymes
By areej ahmad
FST evening
Properties of enzymes
Catalytic
property

reversibili specificity
properties
ty

Senstivenes
s to heat Specific to
and pH
temperature
 Catalytic property
• Enzymes have extra ordinary catalytic power.
• They are very active in small quantities.
• A small amount of enzyme is enough to convert a large
quantity of substrates.
• The enzymes remain unchanged after the reaction.
• The turn over number of enzyme ranges from 0.5 to
600000.
 specificity
• Enzymes are very specific in their action.
• Particular enzyme acts only on particular substrate.
• Enzyme are also specific to the particular type of reaction.
• Enzyme show different types of specificity such as bond
specificity, substrate specificity, cofactor specificity etc.
i. Bond specificity: In this the enzyme is specific to the bond. Eg:
peptidase is specific for peptide bond and lipase is specific for
ester bond in lipid.
ii. Substrate specific: in this the enzyme acts only for a particular
substrate. Eg carbonic anhydrase acts only on carbonic acid.
 Specific to pH
• Enzymes are specific to pH.
• Some enzyme are active in acidic pH .
• Some are active in basic pH.
• Some enzymes active in neutral pH.
• Optimum pH :
the correct pH of an enzyme is denoted as optimum pH.
 Sensitiveness to heat and
temperature
• enzymes are very sensitive to heat and temperature.
• The maximum activity of an enzyme will be at normal temperature.
• The correct temperature for the maximum activity of the enzyme
is called optimum temperature.
• Enzyme will be inactive at very low temperature.
• The enzymatic activity increases with a increase of temperature up
to a certain level.
• At very high temp. the enzyme denatured or destroyed.
 Reversibility
• Most of the enzymes catalyzed reaction are reversible.
• The reversibility of the reaction depends upon the
requirement of the cell.