What is an allosteric enzyme?
1 Answer
Allosteric enzymes are enzymes that change their conformational ensemble upon binding of an effector.
Explanation:
Every enzyme contains an active site, the location on the enzyme where it catalyses it's specific reaction. However allosteric enzyme contains a second type of site called the allosteric site. This site, through its binding of a non substrate molecule, influences the activity of the enzyme.
Allosteric enzymes have the ability to respond to several different conditions in their environments. Another important feature of allosteric enzymes is that they consist of multiple polypeptide chains, with multiple active and allosteric sites.
Allostery plays a crucial role in many fundamental biological processes like cell signalling and the regulation of metabolism.
