MODEL
Enzyme saturation
Change substrate and enzyme amounts to discover saturation.
01 / ENZYME ACTIVITY
Find the limit.
As substrate increases, an enzyme-catalysed reaction approaches a maximum rate. What happens if you add more enzyme instead?
Try this: double the enzyme amount
Compare 50% with 100% at the same substrate concentration. The rate doubles in this model because there are twice as many active sites. The substrate concentration at half the maximum rate stays at 20 units.
At 100% enzyme, the model’s maximum rate is 100 units. At 20 substrate units, the rate is exactly half that maximum.
A steady-state Michaelis–Menten illustration: v = Vmax × S / (20 + S). Temperature, pH and enzyme properties are fixed; no inhibition or substrate depletion is modelled. Values are illustrative, not laboratory measurements.
Explain what you observed
What changes when enzyme amount doubles?
Your study notes
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Connect this activity with your lesson notes and chapter practice.
Read a related learning guide →Practise Enzymes →Open the student notes folder ↗Concepts and sources
Curriculum connections: 6.1, 6.2, 6.3. Selected concepts.
Read the supporting source ↗PMDC curriculum ↗Questions and explanations are original teaching material; these are not official exam questions.