What role do cofactors play in enzymatic activity?
RELEVANT READING : Chapter 6 (pp. 106-124) in text. INTRODUCTION: What is an enzyme? Enzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions in living cells. A catalyst is simply a compound that speeds up a reaction without being permanently changed during the reaction. Enzymes can be reused. They are neither destroyed nor altered while catalyzing reactions. Catalysts work by reducing the amount of activation energy that a reaction requires. Note that enzymes do not make anything happen that would not otherwise occur on its ownthey just make it far more likely to happen (and hence happen faster), by reducing the activation energy. With few exceptions, enzymes are complex, three-dimensional proteins (it is exceedingly rare for any other kind of molecule to possess catalytic abilities, but RNA is one). Each enzyme functions by forming a reactive region that binds to a specific compound. The reactive area on the enzyme is called the active site. The specific compound(s) it binds is the subs
