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Related Concept Videos

Enzymes02:34

Enzymes

95.1K
Inside living organisms, enzymes act as catalysts for many biochemical reactions involved in cellular metabolism. The role of enzymes is to reduce the activation energies of biochemical reactions by forming complexes with its substrates. The lowering of activation energies favor an increase in the rates of biochemical reactions.
Enzyme deficiencies can often translate into life-threatening diseases. For example, a genetic abnormality resulting in the deficiency of the enzyme G6PD...
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Enzyme Kinetics01:19

Enzyme Kinetics

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Enzymes speed up reactions by lowering the activation energy of the reactants. The speed at which the enzyme turns reactants into products is called the rate of reaction. Several factors impact the rate of reaction, including the number of available reactants. Enzyme kinetics is the study of how an enzyme changes the rate of a reaction.
Scientists typically study enzyme kinetics with a fixed amount of enzyme in the controlled environment of a test tube. When more reactant, or substrate, is...
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Enzyme-linked Receptors01:00

Enzyme-linked Receptors

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Enzyme-linked receptors are proteins that act as both receptor and enzyme, activating multiple intracellular signals. This is a large group of receptors that include the receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) family. Many growth factors and hormones bind to and activate the RTKs.
Neurotrophin (NT) receptors are a family of RTKs, including trkA, trkB, and trkC (tropomyosin-related kinase) receptors. TrkA is specific for nerve growth factor (NGF), neurotrophin-6, and neurotrophin-7. TrkB binds...
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Enzyme Inhibition01:30

Enzyme Inhibition

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Inhibitors are molecules that reduce enzyme activity by binding to the enzyme. In a normally functioning cell, enzymes are regulated by a variety of inhibitors. Drugs and other toxins can also inhibit enzymes. Some inhibitors bind to the enzyme’s active site, while others inhibit enzymatic activity by binding to other sites on the protein structure.
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Introduction to Enzymes01:22

Introduction to Enzymes

32.4K
The use of enzymes by humans dates to 7000 BCE. Humans first used enzymes to ferment sugars and produce alcohol without knowing that this was an enzyme-catalyzed reaction. Wilhelm Kuhne coined the term 'enzyme' in 1877 from the Greek words ‘en’ meaning ‘in’ or ‘within’ and ‘zyme’ meaning ‘yeast.’
Most enzymes are proteins that speed up biochemical reactions without being consumed. Enzymes contain one or more active sites that...
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Restriction Enzymes01:11

Restriction Enzymes

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Restriction enzymes are bacterial enzymes used to cut DNA in a sequence-specific manner. To cleave DNA, they bind to specific palindromic sequences called restriction sites. Such palindromic DNA sequences or inverted repeats are commonly found in regions of functional significance, such as the origin of replication, gene operator sites, and regions containing transcription termination signals.
The host bacteria protect their own genomic DNA from these enzymes by methylating these sites. Some...
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Updated: Feb 9, 2026

Primer Extension Capture: Targeted Sequence Retrieval from Heavily Degraded DNA Sources
15:28

Primer Extension Capture: Targeted Sequence Retrieval from Heavily Degraded DNA Sources

Published on: September 3, 2009

20.8K

Visualizing primer extension without enzymes.

John C Chaput1,2,3

  • 1Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, United States.

Elife
|June 1, 2018
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

X-ray crystallography captured enzyme-free RNA synthesis at atomic resolution. This breakthrough reveals fundamental insights into RNA formation without biological catalysts.

Keywords:
RNAbiochemistrychemical biologydinucleotide intermediateenzymesevolutionnoneprebiotic chemistryprimer extension

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Modeling an Enzyme Active Site using Molecular Visualization Freeware
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Area of Science:

  • Biochemistry
  • Molecular Biology
  • Crystallography

Background:

  • The synthesis of Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) typically requires enzymatic machinery.
  • Understanding non-enzymatic RNA synthesis is crucial for theories of abiogenesis and early life.
  • Previous methods lacked the resolution to detail these complex chemical processes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To visualize and analyze the atomic details of RNA synthesis occurring without enzymes.
  • To provide a high-resolution structural basis for non-enzymatic polymerization reactions.
  • To explore the fundamental chemical pathways of RNA formation.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized X-ray crystallography to capture structural snapshots.
  • Analyzed crystal structures of RNA oligomers formed under specific conditions.
  • Employed atomic resolution imaging to observe molecular arrangements during synthesis.

Main Results:

  • Observed the step-by-step progression of RNA chain elongation in the absence of enzymes.
  • Identified key atomic interactions facilitating non-enzymatic phosphodiester bond formation.
  • Provided direct structural evidence for spontaneous RNA polymerization.

Conclusions:

  • Non-enzymatic RNA synthesis is achievable and can be structurally characterized.
  • X-ray crystallography offers unprecedented views into the origins of RNA.
  • These findings have implications for understanding prebiotic chemistry and the emergence of life.