Final answer:
Enzymes accelerate chemical reactions with high specificity and efficiency. They bind substrates at active sites and facilitate the chemical transformation through an induced fit mechanism. Factors such as temperature, pH, and substrate concentration can influence enzyme activity.
Step-by-step explanation:
Enzymes are biochemical molecules that act as catalysts, which means they speed up chemical reactions without being consumed in the process. One of the primary features of enzymes is their reaction specificity, meaning they are specific to the type of reaction they catalyze, rather than just the substrate they act upon. This allows different enzymes to carry out distinct reactions on the same substrate, such as amino acids being oxidized by amino acid oxidase while others are decarboxylated by decarboxylase.
Active sites on the enzymes are where substrates bind, initiating the enzymatic reaction. These active sites have a specific shape and chemical environment that are perfectly suited for the conversion of substrates into transition states, leading to the formation of products. Enzymes may undergo a change in shape, or induced fit, upon substrate interaction, optimizing the binding and reaction process.
There are also several kinetic properties of enzymes, such as Km (the substrate concentration at which the reaction rate is half of Vmax), and Vmax, which is the maximum rate at which an enzyme can catalyze a reaction. Factors that can affect enzyme activity include temperature, pH, substrate concentration, and enzyme concentration. Enzymes facilitate the transformation of substrates to products through a series of steps, forming an enzyme-substrate (ES) complex before product release.