• Question: What is the importance of water for enzymatic activity?

    Asked by meg123 to Amy, Karen, Sarah, Vijay, Will on 19 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Sarah Martin

      Sarah Martin answered on 19 Jun 2012:

      Hi meg!

      Enzymes are dissolved in water and can move about freely in it, so they can meet the molecules that they have to be active on and modify. But also, water is important for how enzymes fold and what structures they form – a dried out enzyme is unlikely to work since its molecular structure could have totally changed!

      So two things to think about here.

      🙂
      Sarah

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