Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 23, 2025

Measuring Lactase Enzymatic Activity in the Teaching Lab
Published on: August 6, 2018
Educational activity of enzyme kinetics in an undergraduate biochemistry course: invertase enzyme as a model
1Department of Medical Laboratory Science, Faculty of Allied Medical Sciences, Jadara University, Irbid, Jordan.
Abstract:
This article aims to simplify and facilitate the process of practical teaching of enzyme kinetics by utilizing minimal teaching laboratory requirements. Simultaneously, it ensures that students comprehend the enzyme kinetics experiment effectively. The focus is on teaching students how to estimate the maximum velocity (Vmax) and Michaelis constant (Km) of β-fructofuranosidase enzyme (also known as invertase) isolated from dry yeast. The invertase enzyme catalyzes the hydrolysis of sucrose substrate into glucose and fructose, employing the Michaelis-Menten approach of evaluating invertase enzyme kinetics as well as Lineweaver-Burk linear graphic approach of evaluating the Michaelis-Menten enzyme kinetics. The practical experiment seeks to reinforce the concepts of initial velocity dependence on substrate concentration. The data presented in the work were generated from a genuine practical biochemistry course enrolled by second-year undergraduate students in the Department of Pharmacy and the Department of Medical Laboratory Science. While there were minor variations in the invertase enzyme kinetic parameters among students, they successfully carried out the experiment. The students accurately estimated the Vmax and Km of the invertase enzyme in the sucrose hydrolysis chemical reaction. Moreover, they demonstrated an understanding of the meanings of the kinetic parameters (Km and Vmax) and the utility of the Lineweaver-Burk plot.
Related Concept Videos
Introduction to Enzyme Kinetics
The experimenter can then plot the initial reaction rate or velocity (Vo) of a given trial against the substrate concentration ([S]) to obtain a graph of the reaction properties. For many enzymatic reactions involving a...
Enzymes
Enzyme deficiencies can often translate into life-threatening diseases. For example, a genetic abnormality resulting in the deficiency of the enzyme G6PD...
Enzyme Kinetics
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...
Introduction to Enzymes
Most enzymes are proteins that speed up biochemical reactions without being consumed. Enzymes contain one or more active sites that...
Enzyme Inhibition
Turnover Number and Catalytic Efficiency
Chymotrypsin is a pancreatic enzyme that breaks down proteins during digestion....

