Catalase Enzyme Lab Report

Environmental Effects on Enzyme Activity

Introduction

Enzymes are substances (most often proteins) that act as biological catalyst. A catalyst speeds up the rate of chemical reaction. This process promotes the conversion of reaction into products. Most of us know that hydrogen peroxide is a toxic chemical but catalase speeds up the breakdown of hydrogen peroxide into non-toxic substance such as water and oxygen. In this catalase enzyme vs. hydrogen peroxide experiment we ask, what environmental treatment will reduce catalase enzyme activity in a potato? We will discover how a potatoes temperature including hot, cold, and room temperatures will affect the catalase enzyme activity. With this information in mind we hypothesized the potato that

The enzyme will drastically slow down activity due to cold temperatures of 24°C. Just like the energy stored in human and plant organisms. If cells are under a certain temperature within living things, the ability to function will not hit equilibrium but will slow down the rate of chemical reaction. It is clear that room temperature is where we will see most of the activity. This is part of the reason why homeostasis is important to living organisms – because homeostasis is the process to maintain internal temperatures so that the structure and function can work properly. The catalase enzyme vs. hydrogen peroxide delivered clear results that environmental factors can alter enzyme activity. That being said our hypothesis was accepted based on the prediction that heat will denature the enzyme while the activity of cold and room temperatures will still have a reaction. This hypothesis could have wrong if other factors were involved such as, if we let them sit for a long period of time or if there were more temperatures involved. In conclusion, later on we may want a larger form of data by including the class results but as of now this experiment went well and confirmed our