Factors affecting enzyme activity

Enzyme activity can be affected by a variety of factors, such as temperature, pH, and concentration.

Enzymes work best within specific temperature and pH ranges, and sub-optimal conditions can cause an enzyme to lose its ability to bind to a substrate.

• Temperature: Raising temperature generally speeds up a reaction, and lowering temperature slows down a reaction. However, extreme high temperatures can cause an enzyme to lose its shape (denature) and stop working.

• pH: Each enzyme has an optimum pH range. Changing the pH outside of this range will slow enzyme activity. Extreme pH values can cause enzymes to denature.

• Enzyme concentration: Increasing enzyme concentration will speed up the reaction, as long as there is substrate available to bind to. Once all of the substrate is bound, the reaction will no longer speed up, since there will be nothing for additional enzymes to bind to.

• Substrate concentration: Increasing substrate concentration also increases the rate of reaction to a certain point. Once all of the enzymes have bound, any substrate increase will have no effect on the rate of reaction, as the available enzymes will be saturated and working at their maximum rate.

Glycosidic Bond: Certain type of functional group which joins a sugar molecule to another group is called glycosidic bond. Another group may or may not be another carbohydrate.

Peptide Bond: A chemical bond formed between two molecules; when the carboxyl group of one molecule reacts with the amine group of another molecule; is called peptide bond (amide bond). A molecule of water is released during this reaction. This is a dehydration synthesis reaction and usually occurs between two amino acids. This is also known as a condensation reaction. The resulting CO – NH bond is called a peptide bond. The resulting molecule is called an amide. The four atom functional group – C (=O)NH – is called an amide group or a peptide group.

Phospho-diester Bond: A group of strong covalent bonds between a phosphate group and two other molecules over two ester bonds is called a phosphor-diester bond. Phosphodiester bonds make the backbone of the strands of DNA and hence are central to all life on Earth. In DNA and RNA, the phosphodiester bond is the linkage between the 3’ carbon atom of one sugar molecule and the 5’ carbon atom of another.

Nucleic acids

• Nucleic acids are long chain polymers of nucleotides; hence called Polynucleotides
• They are found inside nucleus, hence called Nucleic acids
• 2 types of nucleic acids:
• DNA
  • Deoxyribonucleic Acid
  • Specify order of amino acids in a polypeptide
  • Store genetic information, has capacity to duplicate
  • Double-stranded structure                                                           
• RNA
  • Ribonucleic acid
  • Helps in Polypeptide synthesis
  • Convey genetic information, cannot self replicate
  • Single stranded structure

Polysaccharides

• Polysaccharides contain a large number of monosaccharide units joined together by glycosidic linkages.
• These are the most commonly encountered carbohydrates in nature.
• They mainly act as the food storage or structural materials.
• Some examples of polysaccharides are:
  • Starch
  • Cellulose
  • Glycogen

Proteins are complex biomolecules that are made up of smaller units known as amino acids. 

Due to different rearrangement of amino acids, the structure of proteins divides into four types:

• Primary- the covalent linkages of the proteins
• Secondary- the linear peptide chains fold either into an alpha-helical structure(coiled) or a beta-pleated structure(sheets) which contain hydrogen bonds.

• Tertiary- The arrangement and interconnection of proteins into specific loops and bends forms the tertiary structures. This structure contains hydrogen, ionic and disulfide bonds.
• Quarternary- this structure is proteins containing more than one peptide chain.

Primary Metabolites

These are the chemical compounds produced during the growth and development, processes. They are also involved in the primary metabolic processes of respiration and photosynthesis. The primary metabolites are formed in the growth phase. They maintain the physiological functions of the body and are known as central metabolites. They are the intermediate products of anabolic metabolism, which are used by the cells for the formation of essential macromolecules.

Secondary Metabolites

These compounds are produced by the organisms that are not required for primary metabolic processes. However, they can be important ecologically or otherwise. Secondary metabolites are considered to be the end products of primary metabolites because they are derived by the pathways in which the primary metabolites involve.

For eg., antibiotics, toxins, pheromones, enzyme inhibitors, etc. Streptomycetes and related actinomycetes are the sources of novel secondary metabolites.

• A nucleotide is an organic molecule with a basic composition of a nitrogenous base, pentose sugar and phosphate.
• DNA and RNA are polynucleotides, which contain a chain of nucleotides monomers with different nitrogenous bases.
• Nucleotides are essential for carrying out metabolic and physiological activities.
• ATP (Adenosine triphosphate) acts as the energy currency of cells. Nucleotides form various coenzymes and cofactors, such as NAD, NADP, FAD, coenzyme A, etc. and are essential for many metabolic processes.

Lipids

• Lipids are Heterogeneous organic compounds. They contain Carbon, hydrogen, less amount of oxygen, phosphorus, nitrogen, sulphur
• These are Water insoluble; therefore they form part of membranes that divide water components in the body
• Lipids perform the following functions:
  • Energy storage in the form of Oils & fats
  • Structural roles in Cell membrane
  • Messenger (steroid hormones)
  • Constituents of Plants pigments chlorophyll, carotene etc, Wax, rubber, Vitamins A, E, K
  • Fat acts as an insulator that conserves body heat in animals
  • Fat underneath the skin also act as shock absorber

Amino acids are normal components of cell proteins (called amino acid). They are 20 in number specified in genetic code and universal in viruses, prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Otherwise amino acids may be termed rare amino acids, which take part in protein synthesis e.g. hydroxyproline and non- protein amino acids do not take part in protein synthesis e.g. Ornithin, citrullin, gama-aminobutyric acid (GABA) a neurotransmitter, etc.

Chemical Composition Tests Available:

1. Chromatography. Gas Chromatography. Ion Chromatography. Liquid Chromatography.
2. Mass Spectroscopy. GC Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS) Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP-MS)
3. Spectroscopy. FTIR (Solution & Pellet) X-Ray - EDS & XRF Analysis. Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP-AES)

One has to perform a chemical analysis in order to find the type of organic compounds are found in living organisms. We can take any living tissue (a vegetable or a piece of liver, etc.) and grind it in trichloroacetic acid (Cl3CCOOH) using a mortar and a pestle. We obtain a thick slurry.

The President also has veto power by which he can withhold or refuse to give assent to Bills (other than Money Bill) passed by the Parliament. Every bill passed by the Parliament goes to the President for his assent before it becomes a law. The President can send the bill back to the Parliament asking it to reconsider the bill. This “veto’ power is limited because, if the Parliament passes the same bill again and sends it back to the President, then, the President has to give assent to that bill. However, there is no mention in the Constitution about the time limit within which the President must send the bill back for reconsideration. This means that the President can just keep the bill pending with him without any time limit. This gives the President an informal power to use the veto in a very effective manner. This is sometimes referred to as ‘pocket veto’.

Though required to act on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers, in certain matters the President may exercise discretion within reasonable limits. The following are the discretionary powers of the President of India:

1. The President can withhold assent to a Non-Money Bill or send it back for reconsideration.
2. There is no time limit within which the President is required to declare his assent or refusal or return the Bill for reconsideration. He can take as much time as he thinks appropriate.
3. If no political party or leader has majority support in the Lok Sabha, the President has the freedom to decide who should be appointed as Prime Minister.
4. In case the Prime Minister has lost the support of the Lok Sabha, he may, instead of tendering his resignation, ask for the dissolution of the House. The President is bound to act on the advice of the Prime Minister. He can also explore the possibility of forming an alternative government at the centre.

BUSINESS ETHICS Refers to the moral values or standards or norms which govern the activities of a businessman. Ethics define what is right and what is wrong. By ethic we mean the business practices which are desirable from the point of view of Society. The purpose of business ethics is to guide the managers and employees in performing their job. Example of business ethics are charging fair price from customers, giving fair treatment to workers, earning reasonable profits and paying taxes tithe government honestly.

 J a n u a r y

The weather changed for worse on January 2. Now the waves were gigantic. As the ship rose to the top of each wave, they saw endless enormous seas rolling towards them. The screaming of the wind and spray was painful to the ears.

The Chinese art is based on the imagination of the painter and is considered as the spirit resides in it that gives the essence of inner life. Where the Europian art is more about figurative paintings that are realistic and perfectly resemble with the real objects.
The Chinese painter Wu Daozi used to draw paintings from imagination and Quinten Metsys from Belgium painted a realistic fly to impress the father of the girl he had fallen in love with. 

• Cataclastic metamorphism occurs along with the tectonic plate faults where the rocks get rubbed with each other which results in the grain size reduction.

• Transformation of these rocks are classified as one which could not form non foliated rock and is of low grade.

• Circulation of rock results in huge number of mineral water chemical reactions which results in different kinds of precious metals and stones.

Answer: The oceanic crust is layer of earth is also known as sima
The oceanic crust is called ‘sima’. The root of the word sima is ‘si’ from silica and ‘ma’ from magnesium.