While eating a container of yogurt, you have to leave, so you store the yogurt in the refrigerator. A day later you return and find the surface of the yogurt is no longer smooth but has broken into several liquified products. You correctly guess that enzymes from your saliva, via the spoon, have continued digesting the yogurt in your absence. What will happen over time?
A) Nothing, the reaction has stopped because the amount of saliva is small and you would have to add more saliva to continue the degradation.
B) The reaction will continue indefinitely since the enzyme is not consumed by the reaction.
C) The reaction will continue until half is digested and then stop because the reaction between substrate and product will be balanced.
D) The reaction has stopped because the yogurt has denatured the enzyme.
E) As long as the enzyme is not denatured by environmental conditions, the reaction will continue until all of the substrate is used up.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Enzymes are not consumed by the reaction they catalyze. As long as there is substrate and the enzyme is not denatured by environmental conditions, the reaction will continue until all of the substrate is used up. The fact that the yogurt has broken into several liquified products indicates that the reaction has likely continued beyond just a small amount of degradation, and it will continue until all the substrate is used.

While Eating a Container of Yogurt, You Have to Leave