ProteinDenaturation:an examination of the critical enzyme

Catalase

London, November 29 2010 - UK Meteorological Office researchers have shown that the world could warm by 4 °C by 2060, devastating much of the Amazon rainforest and changing living conditions throughput the world

Climate change

and an EXPLOSION in human population fueled by the rapid consumption in fossil fuels (7 billion people On Earth estimated this 2012) are Inexorably linked

Scientists agree that increased

Emissions from carbon

based fossil fuels into the atmosphere will result in devastating ecological shifts throughout the globe

Polar ice caps are melting Sea levels are rising Oceans are becoming more acidic Extreme weather events such as heat waves, hurricanes and, most perniciously, drought are becoming more common place

Photo taken on Feb. 24, 2012 shows cracked land in a pond at Fanglang Village in Malong County of southwest China's Yunnan Province. A brutal drought has wracked the province since late last year, leaving at least 3.15 million people without sufficient supplies of drinking water as of Monday, according to government statistics. (Xinhua/Lin Yiguang)

DROUGHT will become more frequent and common place

Extreme DROUGHT in Kenya has displaced more than two million people, put 12 million more in

need of immediate food

assistance and has killedmore than 30%of the county’s cattle-

completely devastatingtribes whose main source of wealth is measured in heads ofcattle.

These cattle died when biological functions could no longer be sustained because of extreme conditions

.Metabolic enzymes function best in aqueous, bufferedsolutions with a constant body temperature of 37degress Celsius.

Their viability under extreme conditions is important to understandThe process of protein/ enzyme breakdown is called

DENATURATION…

The reactivity of catalase is highly visible

Objective:

Students will examine the effects of extreme conditions on biological moleculesThey will formulate their own experimental designs and submit their reports for peer review.

Process:Students will examine the reactivity of the enzyme

Catalase a critical enzyme involved

in removing toxic hydrogen epoxied – a poisonous metabolic by product.

2(H2O2)----catalase---- 2H2O + O2

Students will have the opportunity toexamine catalase reactivity using potato(a rich source of the enzyme and muchneater to work with than beef liver another rich source) of theThey will pick 3 of the 4 conditions to examine

Temperature extremes (freezing vs. hot) Hypertonic (salt) solution vs. control Dehydration vs., control Acidic or basic conditions

Reactivity of catalase under different extremes

Students will work independently while being ‘linked up’

to a group of 3-4 students

They submit lab reports for peer review where their

methodology

experimental design conclusions

will be assessed in a manner similar to the process that Scientists engage e in.