University of Guyana

Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry

AGR 2101 – Agricultural Biochemistry

Study questions on enzymes and carbohydrates.
Enzymes
1. How does the catalytic effectiveness of enzymes compare with that of non-enzymatic
catalysts?
Enzymatic catalysts have the ability to increase the rate of reaction as compare to non-
enzymatic catalysts.
2. Give two reasons why enzyme catalysts are 103 to 105 more effective that reactions that
are catalyzed by, for example, H+ and OH-.
 Enzymes hold the substrate in favourable spatial positions.
 Bind effectively to transfer star to stabilize them.
3. Suggest a reason why heating a solution containing an enzyme markedly decreases in
activity. Why is the decrease of activity frequently much less when the solution contains
high concentrations of the substrate?
The decrease in activity is due too the denaturation of the protein. The decrease of
activity is because of binding of substrate to the enzyme makes it difficult to denature.
4. What effect does a catalyst have on the activation energy of a reaction?
Catalysts lowers the activation energy of a reaction.
5. Distinguish between the lock and key and induced-fit models for binding a substrate to an
enzyme.
Lock and key models substrate binds to that portion of the enzyme with a complementary
shape while induced fit models the binding of the substrate induces change in the
conformal of the enzyme and give a complementary fit.
6. Other things being equal, what is the potential disadvantage of an enzyme having a high
affinity for a substrate?
The ES complex would be in an energy trough with a consequentially large activation
energy to the transition state.

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 7. Show graphically the dependence of reaction velocity on substrate concentration for an
enzyme that follows Michealis-Menten kinetics.
8. How can you recognize an enzyme that does not display Michealis-Menten kinetics?
Allosteric enzymes shows sigmoid curve.
9. Determine the values of Km and Vmax for the decarboxylation of a β-keto acid given the
following data:

Substrate concentration Velocity (mM/min)

(mol/L)
2.500 0.588
1.000 0.500
0.714 0.417
0.526 0.370
0.250 0.256

10. How can competitive and noncompetitive inhibition be distinguished in terms of

The value of Km in competitive inhibition increases while in noncompetitive inhibition
the value of Km remain unchanged.
11. Can enzyme inhibition be reversed in all cases?
No they can be both reversible and irreversible.
12. Draw Lineweaver-Burk plots for the behaviour of an enzyme for which the following
experimental data are available:

[s] (mM) V (mmol/min) No inhibitor V (mmol/min) Inhibitor Present

3 4.58 3.66
5 6.4 5.12
7 7.72 6.18
9 8.72 6.98
11 9.5 7.6

Carbohydrates
13. Describe the common structural features and the differences for each pair: (a) cellulose
and glycogen; (b) D-glucose and D-fructose; (c) maltose and sucrose.
14. Explain the difference between a hemiacetal and a glycoside.

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 Hemiacetal is made by addition of an alcohol to an aldose or ketose while glycoside is
made by condensing hemiacetal with an alcohol.
15. The fructose in honey is mainly in the -D-pyranose form. This is one of the sweetest
carbohydrates known, about twice as sweet as glucose; the -D-furanose form of fructose
is much less sweet. The sweetness of honey gradually decreases at a high temperature.
Also, high-fructose corn syrup (a commercial product in which much of the glucose in
corn syrup is converted to fructose) is used for sweetening cold but not hot drinks. What
chemical property of fructose could account for both these observations?
16. A disaccharide, which you know to be either maltose or sucrose, is treated with Fehling’s
solution, and a red color is formed. Which sugar is it, and how do you know?
17. Which bond(s) in -D-glucose must be broken to change its configuration to -D-glucose?
Which bond(s) to convert D-glucose to D-mannose? Which bond(s) to convert one
“chair” form of D-glucose to the other?
18. Lactose exists in two anomeric forms, but no anomeric forms of sucrose have been
reported. Why?
19. Cellulose could provide a widely available and cheap form of glucose, but humans cannot
digest it. Why not?

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20. Using the figure below, identify the epimers of (a) D-allose, (b) D-gulose, and (c) D-
ribose at C-2, C-3, and C-4.