Hey biochemians 🙂
Today I’m going to reflect on the chemical substances or ions that aid enzymes. We need to remember these basic and important definitions in order to move further ahead next semester. So when sir says “This enzyme has 5 cofactors….” we won’t be all confused like
First I guess to get a clear visual of these we should define enzymes.
–Enzymes are biological catalyst that speeds up chemical reactions by providing an alternative pathway with a lower activation energy.
–Cofactors are non protein chemical compound that is required for the enzyme’s biological activity.
-The prosthetic group is the coenzyme or metal ion that is very tightly or covalently bonded to enzyme protein.
-A holoenzyme is a complete catalalytically active enzyme together with its bound coenzyme and/or metal ions
– The apoenzyme is the protein part of the holoenzyme.
Apoenzyme + Prosthetic Group = Holoenzyme
Hope this helps you out guys! Rewriting it and seeing it in pictures helped me.
Happy studying 🙂
Le Biochem Blog 