Enzymes that cleave proteins in a substrate-specific manner

These are enzymes

• Enzymes, formerly also known as ferments, are special proteins that have catalytic properties. Since these are biological processes, they are called biocatalysts.
• Like all catalysts, they cause a reaction to proceed faster or slower; in the case of enzymes, the reaction is usually always accelerated. Any reaction can take place without an enzyme.
• It is typical that the enzyme changes during the reaction, but is in unchanged form at the end.
• You can find enzymes in animal and plant organisms. A typical protein-splitting enzyme can be found in fruits such as kiwi fruit, pineapple or papaya. These fruits contain substances that prevent gelatin, which is an animal protein, from solidifying.
• You can think of it as similar to a key and lock. You can get a lock without a key, but it works better with a key (enzyme). After opening, you can separate the key and lock again, the key is unchanged, the lock changed, now open.
  instagram viewer


How are enzymes built?

Enzymes are complex biomolecules, the reactions of the cell metabolism ...

Substrate-specific cleavage of proteins

• As a substrate in the biochemistry denotes the starting materials with which reactions take place.
• Substrate-specific is understood to mean the property that enzymes only act like a catalyst with certain starting materials. When they come into contact with other substances, they do not change the reaction in any way. Keep in mind that enzymes are proteins themselves, so if they did not only act as a catalyst for certain proteins, they would self-destruct.
• However, each key (enzyme) only fits a certain lock (substrate). So it is substrate-specific. A key is useless if you want to use it to open a lock that does not match it.