AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Enzymes are proteins comprised of amino acids linked together in one or more polypeptide chains. This sequence of amino acids in a polypeptide chain is called the primary structure.

Detailed explanation-2: -Enzymes, which are produced by living cells, are catalysts in biochemical reactions (like digestion) and are usually complex or conjugated proteins.

Detailed explanation-3: -Although an enzyme generally consists of protein, a few enzymes contain non-protein components such as nucleic acid. The ribozyme discovered by Thomas Cech and others in 1986 is a catalyst made of RNA, which acts on itself and cleaves RNA.

Detailed explanation-4: -The conclusion that pure proteins can be enzymes was definitively demonstrated by John Howard Northrop and Wendell Meredith Stanley, who worked on the digestive enzymes pepsin (1930), trypsin and chymotrypsin. These three scientists were awarded the 1946 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.