Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese, what can we call it~

[canesisters]

hahaha, told ya so.

 

[Larisa]

Enzymes are complex proteins that facilitate, catalyze or speed up chemical reactions. The precise order of amino acids in the proteins from which they're made determines their shape, and their shape determines their function.



Typically, each enzyme does just one thing, so there are just about as many enzymes as there are different things for them to do. Without taking part themselves, they make possible hundreds of thousands of processes in our bodies: they can chop things up (hydrolases), put things together (ligases), split double bonds between atoms (lyases), and move chemical groups from molecule to molecule (transferases). If it's a biochemical reaction, there's an enzyme involved.

Enzymes have a life-span, just like other living things. Some only live for twenty minutes or so, while others can live for many weeks before some other enzyme comes along and seals their fate.
The slowest-acting known enzyme, lysozyme (an anti-bacterial enzyme found in raw milk), can process about thirty molecules a minute. Pretty fast, but compared to carboanhydrase, a 600,000 molecules/second speed demon, it's just an amateur... I'll bet the quick one is the twenty minute wonder mentioned above!

Wow, Richard! It reminded me of preparing for teaching my oldest son in Medical University!