Biochemistry Students' Ideas about how an Enzyme interacts with a Substrate
Department
Chemistry and Biochemistry
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-1-2015
Abstract
Enzyme-substrate interactions are a fundamental concept of biochemistry that is built upon throughout multiple biochemistry courses. Central to understanding enzyme-substrate interactions is specific knowledge of exactly how an enzyme and substrate interact. Within this narrower topic, students must understand the various binding sites on an enzyme and be able to reason from simplistic lock and key or induced fit models to the more complex energetics model of transition state theory. Learning to understand these many facets of enzyme-substrate interactions and reasoning from multiple models present challenges where students incorrectly make connections between concepts or make no connection at all. This study investigated biochemistry students' understanding of enzyme-substrate interactions through the use of clinical interviews and a national administration (N = 707) of the Enzyme–Substrate Interactions Concept Inventory. Findings include misconceptions regarding the nature of enzyme-substrate interactions, naïve ideas about the active site, a lack of energetically driven interactions, and an incomplete understanding of the specificity pocket.
Journal Title
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education
Journal ISSN
1539-3429
Volume
43
Issue
4
First Page
213
Last Page
222
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.1002/bmb.20868