Amylase is the enzyme that controls the breakdown of starch to glucose. Describe how the student could investigate the effect of pH on the breakdown of starch by amylase.

Explanation:

You will investigate the breakdown of starch by amylase at different pHs.

The different pHs under investigation will be produced using buffer solutions. Buffer solutions produce a particular pH, and will maintain it if other substances are added.

The amylase will break down the starch.

A series of test tubes containing a mixture of starch and amylase is set up at different pHs.

A sample is removed from the test tubes every 10 seconds to test for the presence of starch. Iodine solution will turn a blue/black colour when starch is present, so when all the starch is broken down, a blue-black colour is no longer produced. The iodine solution will remain orange-brown.

A control experiment must be set up - without the amylase - to make sure that the starch would not break down anyway, in the absence of an enzyme. The result of the control experiment must be negative - the colour must remain blue-black - for results with the enzyme to be valid.

When the starch solution is added:

For each pH investigated, record the time taken for the disappearance of starch, ie when the iodine solution in the spotting tile remains orange-brown.

The time taken for the disappearance of starch is not the rate of reaction.

It will give us an indication of the rate, but is the inverse of the rate - the shorter the time taken, the greater the rate of the reaction.

We can calculate the rate of the reaction by calculating  \frac{1}{t}, obtaining a measure of the rate of reaction by dividing one by the time taken for the reaction to occur.

A similar experiment can be carried out to investigate the effect of temperature on amylase activity.

Set up a series of test tubes in the same way and maintain these at different temperatures using a water bath - either electrical or a heated beaker of water.

Depending on the chemical reaction under investigation, you might monitor the reaction in a different way. If investigating the effect of temperature on the breakdown of lipid by lipase, you could monitor pH change - lipids are broken down into fatty acids and glycerol. As the reaction begins, the release of fatty acids will mean that the pH will decrease.

good luck :)

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