2-19-15
BISC 220 Lab Report 1
TA: Anh Nguyet Vu
Activity of the Porcine Pancreas α-Amylase Enzyme Under Different Concentration
Introduction:
Enzymes are specialized protein structures that increase the rate of reactions without changing chemical equilibrium between reactants and products (Cooper, 2000). These enzymes have a distinct chemical composition that constructs an active site for substrates to bind to; this is the location where the substances come together to from an enzyme-substrate complex, which makes forming a product possible. The shape of the molecule is extremely important to its function. Enzymes are composed of unique three-dimensional conformations, due to the complex folding during the secondary, tertiary, and …show more content…

It is hypothesized that an increase in enzyme concentration will result in an increase the rate of a reaction, and a decrease in enzyme concentration result in a slower rate of disappearance of starch.

Methods Five standard test tubes were obtained and labeled from 1 through 5 and filled with 5mL of distilled water. A serial dilution was prepared by adding 5 mL of amylase into test tube one, once that mixture was stirred; 5 mL were removed from tube 1 and put into tube 2. This procedure provided each test tube with different concentrations of amylase. Test tube one had a concentration of 0.5%, tube two had a concentration of 0.25%, tube three had a concentration of 0.125%, tube four had a concentration of 0.063%, and tube five had a concentration of 0.031%. Once that was completed, a second set of test tubes were obtained and labeled from 1 through 5. Once the test tubes were labeled, 2 mL of water/amylase mixture were removed from the original tube, and placed into the corresponding tube. Afterwards, 2mL of 7.0 pH buffer solution was added to each of the second set of test tubes, and stirred with a pipette. Next, five test plates were obtained and, each compartment, was filled with 2 drops of I2KI (which was an orange-amber color). A clean pipette was used to fill each test tube with 1% starch solution. Once the starch was placed in the solution a timer was started and recorded as time 0. The sample was tested at 10-second intervals, each time