Page 189 - The Manga Guide to Biochemistry
P. 189
Why are enzymes important for chemical reactions?
A substance that expedites a chemical reaction is called a catalyst. An enzyme, which is a
type of catalyst, is also known as a biological catalyst.
Although an enzyme is required to make a chemical reaction advance efficiently, it is
not neccesarily required for the chemical reaction to occur.
Most chemical reactions in the body will occur eventually even without enzymes, but
many would take an overwhelmingly long time. Complex chemical reactions, like glycolysis,
may never reach completion without a catalyst.
Enzymes are important because, for an organism that must maintain specific condi-
tions and produce energy to stay alive, the chemical reactions that occur inside its body
must be as efficient as possible. For living organisms as a whole, it would be disastrous if
reactions took too long.
If there were But because
no enzymes... enzymes exist...
There would be no life Everyone’s alive
as we know it! and happy!
Now we’ll use some simple graphs and formulas to study the essential qualities of
chemical reactions that rely on enzymes, and we’ll learn why enzymes are so meaningful
to those reactions.
Enzymes Are the Keys to Chemical Reactions 175
