Enzymes originally evolved in high-temperature environments and later adapted to lower temperatures as Earth cooled. Scientists discovered that a key shift in enzyme function occurred over ...

Scientists have now used large-scale computations to explain why many cold-adapted enzymes stop functioning at around room temperature.

Sensing environmental temperature is crucial for the development and survival of animals. Insects such as fruit flies have evolved a particularly delicate thermosensory system that can ...

This determines the specific molecules on which they act. In addition to being pH-dependent, the shape of most enzymes is temperature-dependent, meaning that they function best in a fairly narrow ...

As temperature increases to the optimum close optimum The temperature, pH or enzyme concentration that allows the enzyme to work at its best. , the kinetic energy close kinetic energyEnergy which ...

The structural origin of enzyme adaptation to low temperature, allowing efficient catalysis of chemical reactions even near the freezing point of water, remains a fundamental puzzle in biocatalysis. A ...

This is essential to the enzyme being able to work. One enzyme is therefore specific to one substrate's chemical reaction, or type of chemical reaction.

Enzymes evolved to efficiently operate in low-temperature environments via key substitutions of amino acids in their active site, which lowers the activation energy of catalytic reactions. Life ...