Question Video: Identifying the Active Site of an Enzyme | Nagwa Question Video: Identifying the Active Site of an Enzyme | Nagwa

Question Video: Identifying the Active Site of an Enzyme Biology • First Year of Secondary School

In the diagram, a section is labeled with a ?. This is where the substrate will bind. What is the scientific term given to this part of the enzyme?

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Video Transcript

In the diagram provided, a section is labeled with a question mark. This is where the substrate will bind. What is the scientific term given to this part of the enzyme?

In this question, we are presented with a diagram showing an enzyme and a substrate. Our body constantly needs to break down large molecules into smaller ones or build up large molecules from smaller ones. But the chemical reactions that break down or build up these molecules can sometimes be very slow. An enzyme is a biological catalyst that speeds up the rate of such reactions without being used up. Let’s have a look at an example.

When we eat food, we might ingest large carbohydrates like starch. Starch is too large to be taken up by the body cells. First, it has to be broken down into smaller molecules in the digestive system. To aid in this process, our body produces amylase, an enzyme which helps to break down starch into smaller sugars. To do that, the substrate, in this case starch, has to bind to amylase in the enzyme’s highly specific active site to build an enzyme–substrate complex.

Every enzyme is very specific about which substrates it will bind to. So the substrate, or substrates, must be complementary to the enzyme’s active site in order to bind correctly and form this enzyme–substrate complex. After the enzyme has catalyzed the reaction, it will release products. In our example, the products would be maltose and a shorter starch molecule.

In our diagram, the question mark is pointing to the place where the substrate and enzyme join together. We know that the substrate will fit into the enzyme at the enzyme’s active site. Therefore, the answer to our question is active site.

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