Question

1.Why do we use to 37C bath?

2. What happens if the temperature is too high?

3. For each macromolecule, why do we use on tube with and enzyme and one without?

4.Why do we use on tube with just an enzyme and no substrate?

5. Why may pancreatic lipase not have much effect on digesting milk fat? What else do we need to make the digestion of fats more efficient?

Answer 1

1. A water bath is an important equipment found in most of the laboratories, and is a like a container with water filled in it. The water can be heated to a required temperature and maintained at that for a long period of time due to thermostat. This gives an ambient environment for the molecules in the experiment being studied, and they can perfom optimally. Generally, while performing experiments, the water bath is maintained at 370C, as this is the temperature at which most of the macromolecules such as proteins function optimally, hence get a conducive environment to function at this temperature.

2. If the molecules have a optimum working temperature range of 30-400C, and if the temperature is too high in the water bath, it will make the molecule ineffective as it will degrade at higher temperature and will not function. For example, proteins (enzymes) if treated at higher temperature beyond 700C, their structure is completely defolded or degraded and they become non functional.

3. When an experiment is being performed, a macromolecule under study is treated with the enzyme in one tube and without enzyme in another. The one with enzyme is the test being perfomed while without enzyme is the control. All experiment conditions are same as that in the enzyme containing tube, only that the enzyme is not added. This is done to show the effect of the enzyme on the macromolecule, which can only be understood when one test tube with macromolecule without enzyme is there for comparison.

4.While performing the experiment, a test tube containing only the enzyme without the substrate molecule, is called the blank. A blank is the sample containing non of the analyte or the macromolecule under study. This helps in calibrating the instrument that will take the measurement and also give a base line of zero if it is a colorimetric instrument such as spectrophotometer.

Dear student, as per the Chegg guidelines, I am suppose to answer the first four questions only, you may post the fifth one separately so it can be answered. Thanks