Properties of Enzyme

Enzymes share a consistent set of properties. They are all globular proteins in their basic form. They act as true catalysts and are effective even when present in very small quantities, since each enzyme molecule can be reused repeatedly. They remain chemically unchanged at the end of the reaction they catalyse, ready to catalyse another reaction cycle. They are highly specific, typically acting on only one substrate or a small group of closely related substrates. Each enzyme has a precisely shaped active site, a pocket on its surface where the actual catalytic reaction takes place. Finally, and most fundamentally, enzymes work by **lowering the activation en …