One Pocket, and It Never Runs Out

An enzyme is a protein that speeds up a reaction without being used up, and almost all of it is scaffolding. The chemistry happens in one small folded groove — the active site — whose shape and chemistry come straight out of the protein's tertiary fold. Watch a substrate seat in that pocket, watch the pocket mold around it (induced fit, not the old rigid lock and key), watch the barrier drop and the product leave — and watch the enzyme come out the far side completely unchanged, ready to do it again.

AP BIOLOGY · 8 STEPS · 6 QUICK CHECKS · ACTIVE SITE = A FOLDED POCKET · INDUCED FIT, NOT LOCK AND KEY · LOWERS E_a, NEVER ΔG · NEVER CONSUMED · v1