Energy and Enzymes

Cells are small units, a chemical factory, housing thousands of chemical reactions
These reactions maintain the cell, manufacture cellular parts, and perform replication

Macronutrients provide our cells with building blocks. When we eat our digestive systems
break down large molecules into smaller subunits.

Metabolism: sum of all chemical reaction in a cell
Catabolism: cells use enzymes to break down food molecules
Releases subunits, which are used for energy or to build larger molecules
Anabolism: cells use enzymes to build a large molecule

Energy is the capacity to do work and cause change
Work is accomplished when an object is moved against an opposing force, such as
friction
There are two kinds of energy:
Kinetic energy is the energy of motion
Potential energy is energy that an object possesses as a result of its location or structure
Food has potential energy, which we convert into kinetic energy
When energy goes from potential to kinetic, it is converted into heat energy

Kinetic energy performs work by transferring motion to other matter
Heat, or thermal energy, is kinetic energy associated with the random
movement of atoms



An example of potential energy is water behind a dam (E)
Kinetic energy when gate is opened (F)
Turns turbine (C), kinetic energy of water converted to kinetic energy of turbine
Energy of turbine converted to electric energy (D)

Chemical Energy is potential energy because of its energy available for release in a chemical
reaction
Energy is contained within the bonds of a molecule
When bonds are broken, energy is released
When bonds are created, energy input is required

Thermodynamics: study of energy transformations within matter
Biologists study thermodynamics because an organism exchanges both energy and matter
with its surroundings
The First Law of Thermodynamics: energy in the universe is constant energy cannot be made
or destroyed
Entropy is the measure of disorder, or randomness


Combustion in a car is a burning process that breaks the bonds in gasoline molecule, which
releases heat energy, which the engine converts to kinetic energy
Cellular respiration breaks down glucose and oxygen and converts it to energy for cellular
work


Exergonic reaction: chemical reaction that releases energy (EX - energy exits)
Breaks bonds and releases energy
(catabolic)
This reaction releases energy in
covalent bonds of the reactants
Burning wood releases the energy in
glucose, producing heat, light,
carbon dioxide, and water
Cellular respiration also releases
energy and heat and produces
products but is able to use the released energy to perform work


Endergonic reaction: requires an input of energy and yields products rich in potential energy
(energy EN/in)
Builds bonds and requires energy
input (anabolic)
The reactants contain little
energy in the beginning, but
energy is absorbed from the
surroundings and stored in
covalent bonds of the products
Photosynthesis makes energy-
rich sugar molecules using energy in sunlight

Metabolism: the thousands of endergonic and exergonic chemical reactions produced by a
living organism
Metabolic pathway: series of chemical reactions that either break down a complex
molecule or build up a complex molecule

Energy coupling: cell uses an exergonic reaction to provide the energy for an endergonic
reaction

ATP (adenosine triphosphate) is the energy currency of cells it is the immediate source of
energy that powers most forms of cellular work
It is composed of adenine (a nitrogenous base), ribose (a five-carbon sugar), and three
phosphate groups.
Molecule stores energy because of the negativity of the phosphates

Hydrolysis of ATP releases energy by transferring its third phosphate from ATP to some other
molecule
The transfer is called phosphorylation




ATP is a renewable source of energy for the cell - when energy is released in an exergonic
reaction, such as breakdown of glucose, the energy is used in an endergonic reaction to
generate ATP


Digestion uses a series of chemical reactions to break the bonds that hold food molecules
together.

Protein catalysts are involved of every step in metabolic pathway
The cell fine-tunes reactions by making or not making enzymes

Digestion, enzymes, and metabolism


Enzymes have unique shapes with pockets where the substrate (reactant) binds
Each active site has a certain shape and is lined with amino acids with different properties
Once substrate binds to enzyme, interactions during bonding can make enzyme change shape
and stretch and strain the bond to make the bond more likely to break (decreasing the
activation energy) for a catabolic reaction

For an anabolic reaction, different enzyme binds two substrates, changes shape so bond can
be made more easily

Active site: the part of the enzyme that binds to substrates

Most enzymes require accessory chemicals to function.
Cofactors are accessory molecules that are inorganic, like zinc, copper, and ion.
Coenzymes are accessory molecules that are organic

Enzymes speed up the cell's chemical reactions by lowering energy barriers (activation energy)


Although there is a lot of potential energy in biological molecules, it is not released
spontaneously
Energy must be available to break bonds and form new ones
This energy is called energy of activation



For optimum activity, enzymes require certain environmental conditions
Temperature is very important, and optimally, human enzymes function best at 37
degrees C, or body temperature


High temp will denature human enzymes (can break hydrogen bonds)
Enzymes also require a pH around neutrality for best results

Inhibitors are chemicals that inhibit an enzyme's activity
Competitive inhibitors: inhibit because they compete for the enzymes active site
and thus block substrates from entering the active site
Noncompetitive inhibitors: bind sites other than active site, but changes the shape of the
active site which keeps the substrate from fitting
Feedback inhibition: once a certain concentration of a product rises, it can inhibit one of
the enzymes early on in the pathway