Metabolism & Enzymes

What is Metabolism & Metabolic Pathways?

Metabolism is a term used to collectively describe all the chemical reactions in the cell required to maintain homeostasis.
It only works with the help of enzymes which speed up these cellular reactions.

Enzymes are proteins that can speed up a chemical reaction without being used up in the process. They are the SITES where CHEMICAL REACTIONS OCCUR but they DO NOT get consumed or changed by these reactions.
They function by holding molecules tightly together long enough for both molecules to react. Doing this takes the body less energy since both substrates are stuck in place and do not need excess energy in order to come into contact with one another
Enzymes are highly specific and each type of enzyme will speed up only ONE TYPE OF REACTION!
- To identify an enzyme watch for molecules with the ending -ASE or -SIN