Biology › Section D · Energy: metabolism, respiration, photosynthesis › Topic D.3
Enzymes
A teaspoon of sugar in iced tea would take ages to break down on its own - add a drop of the enzyme sucrase and it falls apart almost instantly. Enzymes are the cell's catalysts: they don't make impossible reactions possible, they make slow ones fast, by finding a cheaper route over the activation-energy hill. This is how a cell controls its chemistry - which reactions run, and how quickly.
In this topic
- Enzymes: the cell's biological catalysts
- What enzymes never change
- Active site and substrate specificity
- Induced fit, not lock-and-key
- Four ways an active site catalyzes
- Temperature, pH, and denaturation
- Cofactors and coenzymes
- Regulating enzymes: inhibitors, activators, and drugs
- Worked example: hexokinase and the lock-and-key question
- Worked example: the cell's fuel gauge
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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