Ryan Devoys, Garrett Donnelly, Ronald Lingat, William Peng

Ms. Baker
AP Biology
24 August 2015
Enzyme Activity Lab
An enzyme is a protein that acts as a catalyst. In other words, it is a chemical agent that
speeds up a reaction without being consumed by the reaction. Substrates bind to the enzymes and
lower the activation energy needed to initiate chemical reactions. Without them, metabolism
would become congested due to the time required to actually complete the chemical reaction.
Enzymes in organisms allow them to maintain life due to the conditions that allow them to be the
most productive, and if they get into an unsuitable pH, temperature, or concentration they
denature and unravel. If enzyme structure is ruined by unsuitable conditions, the enzyme will
begin to fail to function. In our enzyme activity, we tested to see what would conditions would
affect the yeast. The yeast were the enzymes, the untouched hydrogen peroxide was the
substrate, and the products were water and oxygen. The oxygen formed from the reaction is what
caused the bubbles.
The data, while most likely inaccurate, indicated that the enzyme preferred a substrate of
pH 2, because the most bubbles were formed at 7.0 cm, compared to pH 7 and 13. In
temperature, the yeast indicated no preference and simply did not act, starting at 5.1 cm and
ending at 5.1 centimeters. We cannot conclude anything for the temperature from this data. When
we manipulated the yeast to H2O2 ratio in order to see the optimal concentration ratio, the 7:3
ratio proved to be the most optimal, going from 5.1 cm height to 5.2 cm height. The other ratios,

5:5 at 5.1 cm and 3:7 at 5.0 cm, showed that the yeast did not react as well. For the 3:7 ratio, the
height went from 5.1 cm to 5.0 cm, but this is most likely a product of errors made in the lab.
There were possible sources of error that could account for inconsistencies and data that
didnt demonstrate what was hypothesized. First above all the yeast was boiled and that couldve
and probably did kill off many enzymes in the reaction from the beginning, so the results for all
of them were less than what was expected. The reactions were very subtle even with the
reactions that shouldve produced the most dramatic results, which were the reactions room
temperature and neutral PH which was the control. Also since measurements were taken in the
height the solution reached, it needed to be measured at the peak, and if it wasnt then that would
influence inaccurate date. Another possible source of error was the measuring of the reaction
itself. The base of where the tube was measured could have been different than the base in other
measurements, and where to measure up to could have been different. There also may have been
initial differences in the volume of each solution of yeast and hydrogen peroxide. Also some
reactions bubbled a lot more than others but had the same height, so the entire system of
measuring in height of the solution could have been flawed.