Science Common Sense
1220 - What factors affect the rate of enzyme activity in metabolic processes?
Enzyme activity affects how fast your body can do things like digest food. Four main factors affect the rate of enzyme activity:
- Temperature: Enzymes work best at certain temperatures. If it's too hot or too cold, they slow down or even stop working.
- pH level: Enzymes like a certain level of acidity or basicity. If the pH is too high or too low, the enzyme stops working.
- Substrate concentration: The more substrate (the thing the enzyme interacts with), the faster the enzyme works, up to a point. After that, it starts to get slower.
- Inhibitors or activators: Some things can help or hurt enzyme activity. Inhibitors slow it down, while activators make it go faster.
Think of it like a sports game: the best temperature (game conditions), just the right opponents (substrate concentration), and helpful teammates (activators) all work together to make the game (enzyme activity) go smoothly. But if the conditions are bad or there are tough opponents (inhibitors), the game gets harder to win.