How important is the structure of an enzyme to its function?
Crucial, most biologically active enzymes have a particular site for a specific substrate. This has become a very large area of study, I will give you a few places to look The active site of an enzyme contains the catalytic and binding sites. The structure and chemical properties of the active site allow the recognition and binding of the substrate. The active site is usually a big pocket at the surface of the enzyme that contains residues responsible for the substrate specificity (charge, hydrophobicity, steric hindrance) and catalytic residues which often act as proton donors or acceptors or are responsible for binding a cofactor such as PLP, TPP or NAD. The active site is also the site of inhibition of enzymes (see Enzyme inhibitor article). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_site see also models such as Lock and key and induced fit and for a half complete study include Allosteric enzymes Allosteric enzymes are e
