Enzymes

Enzymes are Catalysts Porduced by Living Things

• Living things have thousands of different chemical reactions going on inside them all the time. these reactions need to be carefully controlled- to get the right amounts of substances in the cells
• You can usually make a reaction happen more quickly by raising the temperature. This would speed up the useful reactions but also the unwanted ones too... not good. There's also a limit to how far you can raise the temperature inside a living creature before its cells start getting damaged
• So living things produce enzymes that act as biological catalysts
• A CATALYST IS A SUBSTANCE WHICH INCREASES THE SPEED OF A REACTION WITHOUT BEING CHANGED OR USED UP IN THE REACTION
• Enzymes reduce the need for hightemperatures and we only have enzymes to speed up the useful chemical reactions in the body. These reactions are called metabolic reactions
• Enzymes are all proteins and all proteins are made up of chains of amino acids. These chains are folded into unique shapes, which the enzymes need to do their jobs (see below).

Enzymes are very specific

• Chemical reactions usually involve things…