What is exactly enzyme? This problem had puzzled people for a long time till the biochemist Sumner and chemist Rockefeller at Cornell University in the United States unveiled the enzyme and thus shared the 1946 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Enzyme is a kind of catalytic protein produced in the body, functioning as a catalyst. The catalyst can accelerate the chemical reaction without the change of amount and chemistry after the chemical reaction.
All enzymes are macromolecules made up of many amino acids with a molecular weight between 10,000 and 1,000,000. Natural enzyme molecules include simple enzymes and binding enzymes. The former molecular composition contains only protein, the latter contains non-protein components, as well as protein composition. Some also contain metal ions. Non-protein components in enzymes are known as cofactors. The combination of cofactors and enzyme proteins is called holoenzyme. As for binding enzymes, only the holoenzyme can perform catalytic function.
Enzyme with high catalytic ability can increase the rate of chemical reactions by 106 to 1012 times. An enzyme molecule can convert hundreds to millions of substrate molecules in a minute. Feeling full after having two hamburgers, but feeling hungry in a few hours. Why? The starch, fat and protein in two burgers are catalyzed by enzymes into simple organic molecules that are absorbed by the intestinal wall. Enzymes involved in this chemical reaction are mainly amylases, lipases and proteases. Without the participation of these enzymes, hamburgers may still be hamburgers, nothing changes. This is the magical function of the enzyme. Enzymes are highly specific. An enzyme can only catalyze a chemical reaction. So far, there are about 3,000 kinds of enzymes found in nature, and about 3,000 kinds of chemical reactions can be catalyzed. An enzyme can only control and regulate one chemical reaction. Indigestion, caused by the lack of pepsin, can be treated by a little medicinal pepsin.
Different functional properties of the enzyme in organisms decide different life habit. For instance, donkeys, horses, cattle, sheep are fed on grass; wolves, tigers, leopards are fed on meat. Different tissues and organs in the same organism also have functionally different enzymes. Digestive enzymes within the digestive tract are to help digestion and absorption of nutrients; enzymes in the liver can not only synthesize protein, glycogen and fat, but also get rid of the waste; A variety of glandular enzymes can synthesize a variety of hormones regulating metabolism, and even male and female sexual characteristics also depends on the enzyme.
Enzymes are sensitive to external conditions and therefore have unstable characteristics. High temperature, strong acid, alkali and some heavy metal ions will lead enzyme to lose activity and useless. Enzymes are generally difficult to preserve, which brings great difficulties to a wide range of applications.
According to the function of the enzyme, enzymes are usually divided into six categories: A. oxidoreductases, including sub-oxidase and dehydrogenase, which are involved in productivity, detoxification and the synthesis of certain bioactive substances in the body; B. transfer enzymes, participating in nucleic acid, protein, sugar and fat metabolism and synthesis; C. hydrolase enzymes. These enzymes catalyze the hydrolysis reaction to make the organic macromolecules into simple small molecule compounds. For example, lipases catalyze the hydrolysis of lipids to glycerol and fatty acids. They are the most widely used enzymes by human; D. lytic enzymes, breaking down complex compounds into several compounds; E. isomerases, which specialize in catalyzing the conversion between isomeric compounds and rearranging the groups within the molecule. For example, glucose and fructose are isomers. With glucose isomerase, glucose and fructose can transform each other; F. synthetic enzymes, combining two or more living substances into new ones.
Many enzymes form a regular enzyme system that controls and regulates complex metabolic activities of life. Early enzyme engineering technology was mainly extracting, separating and purifying various enzymes from animal, plant, microbial material, and applying these enzymes to the chemical, food and pharmaceutical industries. Since the 70s, enzyme immobilization technology made a breakthrough, so that enzyme engineering technology such as immobilized enzyme, immobilized cells, bioreactors and biosensors quickly access to applications. With the birth of the third generation of enzyme preparations, various enzyme engineering techniques are applied to manufacture of fine chemical products and medical supplies. Its applications in chemical testing and environmental protection, etc. make the industrialization of enzyme engineering technology among the best in the field of modern biotechnology and it is being integrated with genetic engineering, cell engineering and microbiology engineering to form a new type of industrial sector with great economic benefits.
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