Enzymes are organic proteins that help chemical reactions occur in all living organisms and are found all over nature. They can be affected by a handful of factors like temperature, ph., enzyme concentration, substrate concentration and the presence of any inhibitors or activators. Enzymes are catalysts that help accelerate reactions, remarkably they are not changed in reactions, instead the substrates are converted into products when they bid to the enzyme active site.
All enzymes have a specific function, this means that they are specialized for a certain substrate and will only ever react with that substrate. All enzymes have specific structures, this allows them to carry out so many different tasks. They are considered the most structurally sophisticated molecules known, inevitably their structure and function vary immensely (Urry et al. ,2016). Each protein has an exclusive three-dimensional shape. Enzymes are made up of amino acids that are linked together by peptide bonds in a line, this resulting chain in called a polypeptide (protein); this is and enzymes primary structure. All amino acids have an amino group (NH2) and a carboxyl group (COOH) at each end bonded to a central carbon atom (alpha carbon) that has a hydrogen atom and a side chain (R Group) bonded to the opposite ends. This protein chain folds up on itself in two ways, one is by wrapping around forming a helix or by folding on top of itself forming a sheet, this is called secondary structure.
It can do this because the hydrogen from the amino group and the oxygen in the carboxyl group bond with each other by forming hydrogen bonds, this allows amino acids in the same chain can interact with each other. Then there is tertiary structure, the overall shape of polypeptides developing from interactions between side chains (R Groups) of multiple amino acids. Finally, there is the Quaternary structure, this structure is just combining of multiple polypeptide sub units.
