SPECIFICITY OF ENZYMES

One of the properties of enzymes that makes them so important as diagnostic and research tools, is the specificity they exhibit relative to the reactions they catalyze. Each enzyme will only work on one type of substrate/substance.


This means that they control only one reaction; for example, maltase only acts on maltose, and sucrase on sucrose!


In general, there are four distinct types of specificity:


~ ABSOLUTE SPECIFICITY


- the enzyme will only catalyze one reaction.


~ GROUP SPECIFICITY


- the enzyme will only act on molecules that have specific functional groups.


~ LINKAGE SPECIFICITY


- the enzyme will act on a particular type of chemical bond regardless of the rest of the molecular structure.


~ STEREOCHEMICAL SPECIFICITY


- the enzyme will act on a particular steric or optical isomer.

The picture above is able to help us relate to the fact that enzymes are very specific.

This above video is about enzyme action.