Energy and Catalysis

The first law of thermodynamics deals with the total amount of energy in the universe. It states that this total amount of energy is constant. In other …

In the quest to identify a property that may reliably predict the spontaneity of a process, a promising candidate has been identified: entropy. Scientists …

An important concept in studying metabolism and energy is that of chemical equilibrium. Most chemical reactions are reversible. They can proceed in both …

How can we compare the energy that releases from one reaction to that of another reaction? We use a measurement of free energy to quantitate these energy …

The equilibrium binding constant (Kb) quantifies the strength of a protein-ligand interaction. Kb can be calculated as follows when the reaction is at …

The free energy change for a process may be viewed as a measure of its driving force. A negative value for ΔG represents a driving force for the …

Energy production within a cell involves many coordinated chemical pathways. Most of these pathways are combinations of oxidation and reduction reactions, …

The use of enzymes by humans dates to 7000 BCE. Humans first used enzymes to ferment sugars and produce alcohol without knowing that this was an …

The activation energy (or free energy of activation), abbreviated as Ea, is the small amount of energy input necessary for all chemical reactions to …

Enzyme kinetics studies the rates of biochemical reactions. Scientists monitor the reaction rates for a particular enzymatic reaction at various substrate …

The theory of catalytically perfect enzymes was first proposed by W.J. Albery and J. R. Knowles in 1976. These enzymes catalyze biochemical reactions at …

For many years, scientists thought that enzyme-substrate binding took place in a simple "lock-and-key" fashion. This model stated that the enzyme …

Allosteric proteins have more than one ligand binding site; the binding of a ligand to any of these sites influences the binding of ligands to the other …

Cooperative allosteric transitions can occur in multimeric proteins, where each subunit of the protein has its own ligand-binding site. When a ligand …

The term ribozyme is used for RNA that can act as an enzyme. Ribozymes are mainly found in selected viruses, bacteria, plant organelles, and lower …

ATP is a highly unstable molecule. Unless quickly used to perform work, ATP spontaneously dissociates into ADP and inorganic phosphate (Pi), and the free …

Biological macromolecules are organic compounds, predominantly composed of carbon atoms. The carbon atoms are covalently bonded with hydrogen, oxygen, …

Cellular processes such as building and breaking down complex molecules occur through stepwise chemical reactions. Some of these chemical reactions are …

Enthalpy (H) is used to describe the thermodynamics of chemical and physical processes. Enthalpy is defined as the sum of a system's internal energy …

A living cell's primary tasks of obtaining, transforming, and using energy to do work may seem simple. However, the second law of thermodynamics …

If energy releases during a chemical reaction, then the resulting value will be a negative number. In other words, reactions that release energy have …

The turnover number of an enzyme is the maximum number of substrate molecules it can transform per unit time. Turnover numbers for most enzymes range from …