ENZYME • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Enzyme

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noun

enzyme n. (Physiol. Chem.) A protein produced by a living organism, capable of catalyzing a chemical reaction. Almost all processes in living organisms require some form of enzyme to cause the reactions to occur at a rate sufficient to support life. There are a very wide variety of enzymes, each specifically catalyzing a different chemical reaction, the sum of which cause the bulk of the physiological changes observed as life processes. Enzymes, like most proteins, are synthesized by the protein-synthetic mechanism of the living cell, at special sites on ribosomes, using the genetic information in messenger RNA transcribed from the genetic instructions stored as nuleotide sequences in the DNA (or in some viruses, the RNA) of the genome. Some examples of enzymes are: pepsin, diastase, rennet, DNA polymerase, invertase, glucose oxidase, protease, and ribonuclease. There are many other types of enzyme. Note: The 1913 Webster defined an enzyme as: An unorganized or unformed ferment, in distinction from an organized or living ferment; a soluble, or chemical, ferment.

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Etymology of 'Enzyme'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Enzyme" Quotes from Famous Books

... a pair of rubber gloves from a rack, and pulled off some wilted stalks. From one of the healthy tanks, he took green leaves. He mashed the two kinds together on the edge of a bench and watched. "If it's chromazone, they've developed an enzyme by now that should eat the color out ...

— Let'em Breathe Space • Lester del Rey

... physical and chemical factors, in many and complex physicochemical systems in varying conditions of equilibrium. And it is important to note that even the equilibrium reactions by which a single proteid in the presence of an enzyme, is made and unmade, do not appear always to follow identically the same ...

— Popular Science Monthly Volume 86

... the heat is increased to only a slight degree by rise in temperature. Assuming that the effect of the rise is orderly, a temperature coefficient of 1.3 is indicated for each rise of 10C. This low result suggests to Delf a contradiction to any theory which imputes to the vitamine enzyme or protein-like qualities and on the other hand suggests that the substance is much simpler in constitution. Her results also confirm Hoist and Frhlich as showing its great sensitiveness at temperatures of 100 and below and obviously have a direct ...

— The Vitamine Manual • Walter H. Eddy

... Chromogenesis. Photogenesis. Enzyme formation. Fermentation of carbohydrates: Acid formation. Alkali formation. Indol formation. Phenol formation. Reducing and oxidising ...

— The Elements of Bacteriological Technique • John William Henry Eyre

... that the agent might be a living, filtered virus, although he favored the theory that it was an enzyme ...

— Astounding Stories of Super-Science, November, 1930 • Various

Words linked to "Enzyme" : protease, enzymatic, cyclooxygenase, active site, polymerase, telomerase, cox, complement, nitrogenase, enzyme-linked-immunosorbent serologic assay, protein, isomerase, cholinesterase, lipase, papain, ADA, catalyst, trypsin, spreading factor, nuclease, mao, peptidase, elastase, phosphatase, angiotensin-converting enzyme, sod, streptodornase, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, streptokinase, oxidoreductase, collagenase, proteolytic enzyme, pepsin, zymase, fibrinolysin, coagulase, Hyazyme, accelerator, secretase, amylase, disaccharidase, chymosin, adenosine deaminase, catalase, monoamine oxidase, urease, reductase

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