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ENZYMES & THEIR FUNCTION

What are the Enzymes?

Enzymes are types of specific proteins that aid in accelerating our bodies' metabolic processes, or chemical reactions. Some substances are created and others are broken down. Similarly, enzymes are found in every living thing. Enzymes are made naturally by our bodies. 

Among thousands of other functions, enzymes are necessary for respiration, food digestion, and muscle and nerve function. There are thousands of enzymes in every human cell. Within each cell, enzymes aid in the facilitation of chemical reactions. There are around 1300 unique chemicals tracked down in the human cell. 

In the pharmaceutical, agricultural, cosmetic, and food industries, enzymes control and accelerate reactions so that a valuable final product can be produced quickly and accurately. Catalysts are significant for making cheddar, fermenting brew, baking bread, removing organic product juice, tanning calfskin, and substantially more.

What is the Main Function of Enzymes?

Enzymes perform a wide range of tasks within living things including human beings. They are vital for signal transduction and cell guideline, frequently by means of kinases and phosphatases. They also transport cargo throughout the cell as part of the cytoskeleton and generate movement by hydrolyzing ATP for muscle contraction. 

Ion pumps that are involved in active transport are other ATPases found in the cell membrane. Exotic functions, like firefly luciferase generating light, are also performed by enzymes. Enzymes for viral release from cells, like the influenza virus neuraminidase, or enzymes for infecting cells, like HIV integrase and reverse transcriptase, can also be found in viruses. 

Enzymes play a crucial role in the digestive systems of animals. Proteins and starch, for example, are broken down into smaller molecules by enzymes like amylases and proteases so that they can be absorbed by the intestines. Enzymes hydrolyze starch chains into smaller molecules like maltose and eventually glucose, which can then be absorbed from the intestine. 

Starch molecules, for instance, are too large to be absorbed. Different food substances are broken down by various enzymes. Cellulase is an additional enzyme that breaks down plant fiber's cellulose cell walls in ruminants, which eat mostly plants.


Which are the Main Types of Enzymes?

Depending on the kind of reaction they catalyze, enzymes can be put into one of the seven categories mentioned below. 
    
        1.    Hydrolase Enzymes

Substrates are rapidly hydrolyzed by hydrolase enzymes.

        2.     Isomerase Enzymes 

Isomerase enzymes speed up the process of converting isoisomers into geometric isomers, optical isomers, or both.

        3.    Ligase Enzymes

Energy is generated when two molecular substrates are synthesized into a single molecular compound by ligase enzymes.

        4.    lyase Enzymes 

Lyase Enzymes either catalyze the reverse reaction or encourage the removal of a group from the substrate, resulting in a double-bond response.

    5.    Oxidoreductase Enzymes

Redox reactions are sparked by oxidoreductase enzymes, which fall under the categories of oxidase and reductase.

    6.    Transferase Enzymes 

Transferase Compounds catalyze the exchange of specific gatherings among the substrates.

    7.    Translocase Enzymes 

Translocase Chemicals catalyze the response of particles or particles getting across a film or isolating inside the layers.


Which are the Co-enzymes?

Coenzymes are small organic molecules that can be attached to an enzyme either loosely or tightly. Chemical groups are moved from one enzyme to another by coenzymes. NADH, NADPH, and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) are examples. 

Vitamins are the source of some coenzymes, including tetrahydrofolate (THF), thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP), flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD), and flavin mononucleotide (FMN). The body can't make these coenzymes from scratch, so vitamins and other closely related compounds must come from food. 

It is useful to consider coenzymes to be a special class of substrates, or second substrates, that are shared by numerous enzymes due to the chemical change they undergo as a result of enzyme action. 

For instance, the coenzyme NADH is utilized by approximately 1,000 enzymes. Coenzymes typically undergo constant regeneration, and their concentrations remain constant within the cell. 

Pentose phosphate pathway regeneration of NADPH and methionine adenosyltransferase regeneration of S-adenosylmethionine are two examples. 

Because of this ongoing regeneration, even small amounts of coenzymes can be utilized very effectively. For instance, the human body annually converts its own weight into ATP.


What are the Industrial Enzymes?

Industrial enzymes are enzymes that are utilized commercially in a variety of industries, including pharmaceuticals, chemical production, biofuels, food and beverage, and consumer goods. 

Other examples of these industries include biofuels. Biocatalysis using isolated enzymes is considered to be more cost-effective than using whole cells because of recent advancements. In order to produce the product of interest or the desired product, enzymes can be used as a single operation in a process.

 Due to enzymes' mild operating conditions and exceptional chiral and positional specificity, which traditional chemical processes lack, industrial biological catalysis has grown rapidly in recent years. In the majority of hydrolytic and isomerization reactions, isolated enzymes are utilized. 

When a reaction needs a co-factor, whole cells are usually used. Although co-factors can be made in vitro, metabolically active cells typically come at a lower cost.

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