The Student Room Group

Immobilised Enzymes: A2

Hi,
I did an experiment in school last week investigating the effect of temperature on both free and immobilized lipase. We used temperatures of 40 and 80 degrees C. At 40, both were active but at 80 only the immobilized lipase was active. However, its activity was greatly reduced to that at 40. I understand that the immobilisation process makes the enzymes more stable but why is this and why, if it is more stable, is the activity reduced at all at a higher temperature? In other words, what is the explanation for the decrease in activity in immobilised lipase between 40 and 80 degrees C when with free lipase the enzyme is simply denatured and activity is completely halted?
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks
Reply 1
The immobilisation process makes the enzyme MORE stable, not completely stable. So, the activity of the immobilized enzyme will be greater than that of the free enzyme. Basically, just because its more stable it does not mean that it wont have reduced activity at certain temperatures.
Reply 2
The alginate beads (I presume) stabilise the bonds within the tertiary structure of the immobilised lipase, thus makes them more stable. However, SOME of the immobilised lipase will still denature, and so there is less activity at 80 degrees. The lipase which does not denature is still active and so can still hydrolyse whatever substrate it may be, so there is still some activity.
Original post by Sugarcandy
Hi,
I did an experiment in school last week investigating the effect of temperature on both free and immobilized lipase. We used temperatures of 40 and 80 degrees C. At 40, both were active but at 80 only the immobilized lipase was active. However, its activity was greatly reduced to that at 40. I understand that the immobilisation process makes the enzymes more stable but why is this and why, if it is more stable, is the activity reduced at all at a higher temperature? In other words, what is the explanation for the decrease in activity in immobilised lipase between 40 and 80 degrees C when with free lipase the enzyme is simply denatured and activity is completely halted?
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks


Any ideas what the test for lipase is? I tried to search it but it keeps coming up with doing a blood test....

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