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Oh, What a Difference a Carbon Can Make!

By Betty Jo Chitester, Weslene T. Tallmadge

Oh, What a Difference a Carbon Can Make!


 

Abstract

Sarah, trapped in the middle of a two-hour lecture on enzyme inhibition, attempts to escape by asking a question. She relates an old story she heard about some teenagers who drank from bottles of antifreeze marked "alcohol." Half of them died, but those who drank a mixture of ethanol and methanol survived. Why? The case uses this example of methanol poisoning to illustrate competitive inhibition of an enzyme (alcohol dehydrogenase) by ethanol.  Data from an enzyme kinetic experiment is presented. First, students identify control, independent, and dependent variables in the experimental design.  Next, students plot the data using the Michaelis-Menten equation; the graphs, both with and without inhibitor present, include the inverse of the reaction velocity on the y-axis and the inverse of the substrate concentration on the x-axis.  Finally, students analyze the graphs and draw conclusions regarding the type of enzyme inhibition, competitive or noncompetitive, and the application of that to the case. Although developed for a second-semester course for Physician's Assistant majors to teach them biochemically relevant structural and functional chemistry, the case could also be used for undergraduate courses in biochemistry and cell biology for science majors.

   

Date Posted

12/12/2012

Overview

Objectives

  • Distinguish between competitive and noncompetitive enzyme inhibition.
  • Properly graph and analyze data obtained from an enzyme kinetics experiment.
  • Draw reasonable conclusions from experimental data and apply to the case study.
  • Identify control, independent and dependent variables in the enzyme kinetics experimental design.

Keywords

Methanol poisoning; enzyme; kinetics; Michaelis-Menten; competitive inhibition; experimental design

  

Subject Headings

Biochemistry
Cell Biology
Medicine (General)
Organic Chemistry

EDUCATIONAL LEVEL

Undergraduate lower division, Undergraduate upper division, Clinical education

  

FORMAT

PDF

   

TOPICAL AREAS

Scientific method, Science and the media

   

LANGUAGE

English

   

TYPE/METHODS

Analysis (Issues), Laboratory

 

 

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