Enzymes have the ability to be reusable within biological reactions. Why is this important?
What will be an ideal response?
Answer: Enzymes accelerate biochemical reactions. It is their primary role. The slowest enzymes in a biological system can carry out less than a hundred reactions in a second whereas the fastest can carry out millions of individual reactions in a second. The incredible rate at which enzymes carry out reactions is what keeps the cell functional at a molecular level.
Now, the time taken by an enzyme molecule to catalyze a single reaction is significantly lesser than the time taken by a cell to manufacture a new enzyme molecule. Thus, if enzymes weren't reusable, the cell would have to manufacture a new enzyme molecule for each substrate molecule it had to process. This would severely hamper the cell's capability to function and it would ultimately die.
Moreover, the resources a cell invests to manufacture an enzyme molecule is much higher than the resources it gains from one enzymatic reaction (irrespective of the product formed). An enzyme molecule is itself produced by a huge number of sequential enzymatic reactions. Thus if enzymes weren't reusable the cell would soon run out of resources to manufacture new enzyme molecules.
From the evolutionary point of view, life (as we understand it to be) wouldn't be possible(or drastically different) if enzymes weren't reusable.
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Males are more commonly affected by X-linked recessive genetic disorders than females because ____
a. females have two X chromosomes; therefore, they do not inherit recessive alleles b. males have only one X chromosome; therefore, they express all recessive X-linked traits c. males have only one X chromosome; therefore, they have multiple alleles for each X-linked gene d. Y chromosomes cause X-linked gene mutations e. males are genetically weaker than females
Photoperiodism is the
a. duration of flowering in a plant. b. amount of light needed by a plant to exhibit normal growth. c. response of a plant to the duration of light and darkness. d. light phase of photosynthesis during which photolysis of water occurs. e. opposite of photorespiration.
The uptake of minerals by decomposers is referred to as
A) mineralization. B) immobilization. C) net mineralization rate. D) decomposition.
Glycolysis
a) is not performed in plants, which get their energy solely through photosynthesis b) completely oxidizes glucose to carbon dioxide c) is performed solely on the glucose ingested by the organism d) is also referred to as the Krebs cycle e) occurs in all cells