Enzymes are all around us. Every cell contains thousands of different enzymes, catalyzing all the reactions necessary to maintain life. They work by reducing the energy of activation necessary to facilitate a reaction, allowing the reaction to occur at ambient living conditions. As a catalyst, an enzyme is not consumed in the reaction. It is important to remember that enzymes are proteins whose unique shape gives them their functionality as catalysts. They are not living organisms. Performance of a given enzyme is affected by concentrations of the substrate and the enzyme, temperature, pH and presence of any other inhibitors or activators. Enzyme samples from nature contain mixtures of many different enzymes, making their use in systems other than originally intended unpredictable. Advancement in cloning techniques has enabled the isolation of mono-component enzymes, offering many different products with very specific and unique activity.
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