Question

Could the potato enzyme extract prepared in this exercise (phenoloxidase) be used as a source of another type of plant enzyme such as peroxidase? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Enzyme a biological catalysts which are used to catalyse a reaction. Due to their specificity for the substrate only, an enzyme extracted from one source can be easily used as catalyst in another reaction to catalyse the bioconversion of other substrates. This is because the active site of the enzyme identifies the substrate, not the source. Thus, one enzyme extracted from a source can be used as a catalyst in another bio-reaction as well, provided the substrates are similar in both cases.

Here, it is very likely that an enzyme extracted from animal source such as phenoloxidase could be used in the place of plant enzyme peroxidase since the basic function of both the enzymes is to generate a peroxide based upon peroxidation of organic sources such as benzene ring-compounds, hydrocarbons, hydrogen peroxide etc. This examplifies the phenomenon that an enzyme is specific to its substrates, not their sources.