User:Sarbajitchatterjee

CHEMICAL NATURE OF ENZYMES
All enzymes are chemically protein in nature.Some of these are simple proteins that do not require any additional factor for their activity.An example of such enzyme is chymotrypsin.On the other hand, most of the enzymes are conjugate proteins that are made up of a protein part called apoenzyme and a non-protein part called co-factor often called as coenzyme or prosthetic group.The protein Apoenzyme alone does not show the activity of the enzyme and gains catalytic ability only when the non-protein co-factor is bound to it.The co-factor may be an inorganic metal ion(e.g. magnesium ion,calsium ion.zinc ion etc.).If an organic co-factor is bound loosely to the apo-enzymes(so that it can be easily separated by DIALYSIS), it is called co-enzymes,whereas those bound very tightly to the enzyme protein are called prosthetic groups.Coenzymes are often vitamin derivatives.The complete conjugate protein enzymes are often called as holoenzymes.