Enzyme Lab (Connor)

Honors Biology Mr. Bursch

Connor Brobst

Enzyme Lab Report

Introduction:

Our experiment was on how abiotic factors influence the reactions of an enzyme. Enzymes are catalysts made of protein that speed up reactions by lowering its activation energy. Enzymes use substrates like sucrase and lactase by acting on or with them. However, abiotic factors like heat, pH, enzyme concentration, and substrate concentration can alter how the enzyme works. For example, enzymes work best at room temperature, but if they are heated up, the protein breaks its bonds and cannot work. Our experiment was to determine these reactions.

Purpose:

Our purpose for the experiment was to see the reactions of the enzyme (bindweed) with various pH, and see the reactions.

Hypothesis:

My hypothesis is that the pH will react more to acids, rather than bases.

Materials:

• test tubes
• safety goggles
• syringes
• water
• hydrogen peroxide
• hydrochloric acid
• sodium chloride
• mortar and pestle
• iPhone
• pencil paper
• paper towels
• beakers

Procedure:

1. Gather bindweed
2. use mortar and pestle to mash up binelweed
3. add 20 mm of water to bindweed
4. pour the bindweed mixture over a paper towel, but place a beaker under it.
5. squeeze the bindweed inside the paper towel to extract its enzymes into the beaker
6. add the extract into a test tube
7. add one ½ mm of peroxide to the extract, for the peroxide acts as a substrate
8. observe for 30 seconds with the iPhone stopwatch app, and use the lap for every mm of height it gains.
9. repeat with a solution of extract, peroxide, and hydrochloric pH 3-4
10. repeat with a solution of extract, peroxide, and sodium hydroxide pH 10
11. repeat with a solution of extract, peroxide, and sodium hydroxide pH 12

Observation and Data:

Enzyme reactions

control 7 pH	pH 2-3	pH 3-4	pH 9-10	ph 11-12
3.87	1.54	1.16	0.46	1.46
6.29	5.43	4.21	1.37	3.17
8.2	12.04	7.54	2.53	5.28
10.15		10.85	4.41	6.67
12.56		13.78	5.14	8.23
15.94		17.04	6.37	9.68

Data Analysis:

Our experiment showed that the enzyme received more reactions from bases instead of acids. the control group or pH 7 and sodium chloride, ph 10, had the most reactions. However, the acids had hardly any reactions as shown by the purple and green lines above.

Discussions:

This experiment proved my hypothesis wrong. The enzymes reacted to the bases almost double the reactions as acids, and the foam increased exponentially in height compared to the acids. I could fix my hypothesis by correcting myself; therefore saying that bases have more reactions than acids with enzymes.