Question

The lock-and-key mechanism refers to?

A.) The complementary shapes of an enzyme and a substrate.
B.) the attractive forces between an enzyme and a substrate.
C.) the ability of an enzyme to lower the activation energy of a reaction.
D.) the ability of an enzyme to “unlock” the products of a reaction.

Answer 1

The correct answer is A. Lock and key mechanism is used by an enzyme and its substrate. This is basically used in case of a single ezymes and its substrate. This mechansim was hypothesized by Emil Fischer. The lock is the enzyme and the key is its substrate, which possess a structure similar to that of the key hole of the lock.