CHAPTER OUTLINE

21 Enzymes and Vitamins

21.1 General Characteristics of Enzymes
21.2 Nomenclature and Classification
of Enzymes
21.3 Enzyme Structure
21.4 Models of Enzyme Action
21.5 Enzyme Specificity
21.6 Factors That Affect Enzyme Activity
Chemistry at a Glance: Enzyme Activity
21.7 Enzyme Inhibition
Chemistry at a Glance: Enzyme Inhibition
21.8 Regulation of Enzyme Activity:
Allosteric Enzymes
21.9 Regulation of Enzyme Activity:
Zymogens
21.10 Antibiotics That Inhibit Enzyme
Activity
21.11 Medical Uses of Enzymes
21.12 Vitamins Yellow- and orange-colored vegetables such as pumpkins and squash have significant vitamin A
21.13 Water-Soluble Vitamins activity due to the presence of the molecule beta-carotene.
21.14 Fat-Soluble Vitamins
Chemical Connections
H. pylori and Stomach Ulcers

I
Enzymatic Browning: Discoloration of Fruits n this chapter we consider two topics: enzymes and vitamins. Enzymes govern all
and Vegetables chemical reactions in living organisms. They are specialized proteins that, with fascinat-
Heart Attacks and Enzyme Analysis ing precision and selectivity, catalyze biochemical reactions that store and release
energy, make pigments in our hair and eyes, digest the food we eat, synthesize cellular build-
ing materials, and protect us by repairing cellular damage and clotting our blood. Enzymes
are sensitive to their environment, responding quickly to changes in the cell. The deficiency
or excess of particular enzymes can cause certain diseases or signal problems such as heart
attacks and other organ damage. Our knowledge of protein structure (Chapter 20) can help
us appreciate and better understand how enzymes function in living cells.
Vitamins, which are necessary components of a healthful diet, play important roles in
cellular metabolism. In most cases, they function as enzyme cofactors or carriers of
functional groups during biosynthesis.

21.1 General Characteristics of Enzymes

An enzyme is an organic compound that acts as a catalyst for a biochemical reaction.
Each cell in the human body contains thousands of different enzymes because almost
every reaction in a cell requires its own specific enzyme. Enzymes cause cellular reac-
tions to occur millions of times faster than corresponding uncatalyzed reactions.
As catalysts (Section 9.6), enzymes are not consumed during the reaction but merely
help the reaction occur more rapidly.

641
Copyright 2007 Cengage Learning, Inc. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.
642 Chapter 21 Enzymes and Vitamins

The word enzyme comes from the Greek words en, which means “in,” and zyme, which
means “yeast.” Long before their chemical nature was understood, yeast enzymes were used
in the production of bread and alcoholic beverages. The action of yeast on sugars produces
the carbon dioxide gas that causes bread to rise (see Figure 21.1) Fermentation of sugars in
fruit juices with the same yeast enzymes produces alcoholic beverages.
Most enzymes are globular proteins (Section 20.14). Some are simple proteins,
consisting entirely of amino acid chains. Others are conjugated proteins, containing
additional chemical components (Section 21.3). Until the 1980s, it was thought that all
enzymes were proteins. A few enzymes are now known that are made of ribonucleic
acids (RNA; Section 22.7) and that catalyze cellular reactions involving nucleic acids.
In this chapter, we will consider only enzymes that are proteins.
FIGURE 21.1 Bread dough rises as a Enzymes undergo all the reactions of proteins, including denaturation (Section 20.16).
result of the action of yeast enzymes. Slight alterations in pH, temperature, or other protein denaturants affect enzyme activity dra-
matically. Good cooks realize that overheating yeast kills the action of the yeast. A person
suffering from a high fever (greater than 106°F) runs the risk of denaturing certain enzymes.
The biochemist must exercise extreme caution in handling enzymes to avoid the loss of their
activity. Even vigorous shaking of an enzyme solution can destroy enzyme activity.
Enzymes differ from nonbiochemical (laboratory) catalysts in that their activity is
usually regulated by other substances present in the cell in which they are found. Most
laboratory catalysts need to be removed from a reaction mixture to stop their catalytic
action; this is not so with enzymes. In some cases, if a certain chemical is needed in the
cell, the enzyme responsible for its production is activated by other cellular components.
When a sufficient quantity has been produced, the enzyme is then deactivated. In other
situations, the cell may produce more or less enzyme as required. Because different
enzymes are required for nearly all cellular reactions, certain necessary reactions can be
accelerated or decelerated without affecting the rest of the cellular chemistry.

21.2 Nomenclature and Classification of Enzymes

Enzymes, the most efficient catalysts Enzymes are most commonly named by using a system that attempts to provide information
known, increase the rates of about the function (rather than the structure) of the enzyme. Type of reaction catalyzed and
biochemical reactions by factors of substrate identity are focal points for the nomenclature. A substrate is the reactant in an
up to 1020 over uncatalyzed reactions.
Nonenzymatic catalysts, on the other enzyme-catalyzed reaction. The substrate is the substance upon which the enzyme “acts.”
hand, typically enhance the rate of Three important aspects of the enzyme-naming process are the following:
a reaction by factors of 102 to 104.
1. The suffix -ase identifies a substance as an enzyme. Thus urease, sucrase, and lipase
are all enzyme designations. The suffix -in is still found in the names of some of the
first enzymes studied, many of which are digestive enzymes. Such names include
trypsin, chymotrypsin, and pepsin.
2. The type of reaction catalyzed by an enzyme is often noted with a prefix. An oxidase
enzyme catalyzes an oxidation reaction, and a hydrolase enzyme catalyzes a hydroly-
sis reaction.
3. The identity of the substrate is often noted in addition to the type of reaction. Enzyme
names of this type include glucose oxidase, pyruvate carboxylase, and succinate dehy-
drogenase. Infrequently, the substrate but not the reaction type is given, as in the names
urease and lactase. In such names, the reaction involved is hydrolysis; urease catalyzes
the hydrolysis of urea, lactase the hydrolysis of lactose.

EXAMPLE 21.1

Predict the function of the following enzymes.
Predicting Enzyme Function from
a. Cellulase b. Sucrase
an Enzyme’s Name c. L-Amino acid oxidase d. Aspartate aminotransferase
Solution
a. Cellulase catalyzes the hydrolysis of cellulose.
b. Sucrase catalyzes the hydrolysis of the disaccharide sucrose.

Copyright 2007 Cengage Learning, Inc. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.