what are enzymes? classify them and explain their role?.
Answers
Enzymes
The human body is composed of different types of cells, tissues, and other complex organs. In order to function efficiently, there are certain chemicals released by our body to speed up certain biological processes like digestion, respiration, excretion, and other metabolic activities in order to maintain a healthy life. Thus, enzymes play an important role in all higher multicellular organisms including plants by regulating all the biological processes.
Enzymes are biological molecules (typically proteins) that significantly speed up the rate of virtually all of the chemical reactions that take place within cells. They are vital for life and serve a wide range of important functions in the body, such as aiding in digestion and metabolism.
Types of enzymes:
Oxidoreductases
These catalyze oxidation and reduction reactions,e.g. pyruvate dehydrogenase, which catalyzes the oxidation of pyruvate to acetyl coenzyme A.
Transferases
These catalyze the transfer of a chemical group from one compound to another. An example is a transaminase, which transfers an amino group from one molecule to another.
Hydrolases
They catalyze the hydrolysis of a bond. For example, the enzyme pepsin hydrolyzes peptide bonds in proteins.
Lyases
These catalyze breakage of bonds without catalysis, e.g. aldolase (an enzyme in glycolysis) catalyzes the splitting of fructose-1, 6-bisphosphate to glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate and dihydroxyacetone phosphate.
Isomerases
They catalyze the formation of an isomer of a compound, example, phosphoglucomutase catalyzes the conversion of glucose-1-phosphate to glucose-6-phosphate (transfer of a phosphate group from one position to another in the same compound) in glycogenolysis (conversion of glycogen to glucose for quick release of energy.
Ligases
Ligases catalyze the joining of two molecules. For example, DNA ligase catalyzes the joining of two fragments of DNA by forming a phosphodiester bond.
Cofactors
Co-factors are non-proteinous substances that associate with enzymes. A cofactor is essential for the functioning of an enzyme. An enzyme without a cofactor is called an apoenzyme. An apoenzyme and its cofactor together constitute the holoenzyme.
Explanation:
According to the International Union of Biochemists (I U B), enzymes are divided into six functional classes and are classified based on the type of reaction in which they are used to catalyze. The 6 types of enzymes are oxidoreductases, hydrolases, transferases, lyases, isomerases, ligases.
Isomerases: The Isomerases enzymes catalyze the structural shifts present in a mole...
Oxidoreductases: The enzyme Oxidoreductase catalyzes the oxidation reaction where ...
Hydrolases: Hydrolases are hydrolytic enzymes,
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