Scientists from King's College London have recreated the active site of Acetyl-CoA Synthase, an enzyme involved in capturing carbon from the atmosphere. The research, carried out in collaboration with Imperial College London, ...
Biochemistry
Jul 18, 2024
0
138
A UC Riverside environmental engineering team has discovered specific bacterial species that can destroy certain kinds of "forever chemicals," a step further toward low-cost treatments of contaminated drinking water sources.
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 17, 2024
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71
A team from the University of Illinois has developed a modeling framework connecting enzyme activity related to photosynthesis to yield. This is the first time a model has tied the dynamic photosynthetic pathways directly ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 11, 2024
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0
In a rat study, RIKEN biologists have solved the mystery of where glycan molecules in the blood come from, tracking them down to the liver. This finding could lead to new biomarkers for liver-related diseases.
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 11, 2024
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0
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers have determined whether a specific chemical modification of a protein that packages the genome called a histone affects gene activity and cell proliferation, according ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Jul 10, 2024
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0
Researchers at the School of Medicine have identified a novel enzyme involved in building the cell wall of Cryptococcus neoformans, a fungus that causes lung infections and potentially deadly cases of meningitis, primarily ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 9, 2024
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0
Scientists from the University of Manchester have uncovered a more efficient and sustainable way to make peptide-based medicines, showing promising effectiveness in combating cancers.
Biochemistry
Jul 8, 2024
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12
A team of researchers has established a ribonucleic acid (RNA)-based method that drives cells in the body to produce therapeutic proteins and secrete them into the bloodstream. The approach could potentially extend the lifespan ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 3, 2024
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20
New experimental research shows that muscle metabolic activity may be an important factor in the incredible longevity of the world's oldest living vertebrate species—the Greenland shark. These findings may have applications ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 3, 2024
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1
Researchers at the Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry (IPC), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), have developed an enzymatic platform that can efficiently transform naturally abundant and inexpensive fatty acids ...
Biochemistry
Jun 28, 2024
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75
Enzymes are biomolecules that catalyze (i.e., increase the rates of) chemical reactions. Nearly all known enzymes are proteins. However, certain RNA molecules can be effective biocatalysts too. These RNA molecules have come to be known as ribozymes. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process are called substrates, and the enzyme converts them into different molecules, called the products. Almost all processes in a biological cell need enzymes to occur at significant rates. Since enzymes are selective for their substrates and speed up only a few reactions from among many possibilities, the set of enzymes made in a cell determines which metabolic pathways occur in that cell.
Like all catalysts, enzymes work by lowering the activation energy (Ea or ΔG‡) for a reaction, thus dramatically increasing the rate of the reaction. Most enzyme reaction rates are millions of times faster than those of comparable un-catalyzed reactions. As with all catalysts, enzymes are not consumed by the reactions they catalyze, nor do they alter the equilibrium of these reactions. However, enzymes do differ from most other catalysts by being much more specific. Enzymes are known to catalyze about 4,000 biochemical reactions. A few RNA molecules called ribozymes catalyze reactions, with an important example being some parts of the ribosome. Synthetic molecules called artificial enzymes also display enzyme-like catalysis.
Enzyme activity can be affected by other molecules. Inhibitors are molecules that decrease enzyme activity; activators are molecules that increase activity. Many drugs and poisons are enzyme inhibitors. Activity is also affected by temperature, chemical environment (e.g., pH), and the concentration of substrate. Some enzymes are used commercially, for example, in the synthesis of antibiotics. In addition, some household products use enzymes to speed up biochemical reactions (e.g., enzymes in biological washing powders break down protein or fat stains on clothes; enzymes in meat tenderizers break down proteins, making the meat easier to chew).
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