Question

Enzymes allow chemical reactions to occur how

Answer 1

They speed up the reaction. They are organic catalysts. And catalysts are used to speed up reactions. It needs lower activation energy if the catalyst (enzyme) is added.

Answer 2

Enzymes are biocatalysts which accelerate the rate of a biochemical reaction by lowering the activation energy of the reaction.

The mechanism involved:

Binding to substrate: Enzymes are highly specific and bind to the particular substrate(s) and form an enzyme-substrate complex. Specificity is achieved mainly by the shape of the active site and inter-molecular interactions.

Catalysis: Enzyme accelerates the rate of reaction by lowering the activation energy.

It does so in various ways such as by stabilizing the transition (enzyme-substrate complex) state, it may provide alternate reaction method et cetera.

During this, it converts substrate into product and forms substrate-product complex.

Lastly, the product is released and the enzyme is ready for a new cycle of reaction.

Enzyme (E) + Substrate (S) → Enzyme-Substrate complex (ES) → Enzyme-Product complex (EP) → Enzyme (E) + Product (P)