Biochemistry
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I am doing an investigation on the activity on diastase on starch and I have found that sodium chloride can increase the enzyme activity but I am having trouble in finding out why it does this. Can you help? 260308
Igloo writes ..........
The activity of most enzymes is affected by the presence of ions. In the case of sodium chloride, the enzyme diastase will have ionic side chains, e.g. -NH3+, to which chloride ions can loosely bind. This will not affect the three-dimensional shape substantially, but any slight alteration in shape might make it easier for the substrate molecule (starch) to bind to the active site. I have no expert knowledge of the effect of chloride ions on this particular reaction, but I strongly suspect that the explanation I have given probably accounts for your observations.
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updated: 28 March 2008
