David Jaramillo

Perrill
Danes
11/4/14
Catalase Denaturation Lab Write Up
Introduction: An enzyme is a protein that helps speed up chemical reactions in our bodys. The
enzyme catalase breaks down hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen, which we can see as
oxygen bubbles. In this lab, we will test and see if high increase in temperature will denature the
enzyme and keep it from working, and we can tell
Purpose: How does temperature affect the enzyme catalase?
Hypothesis: If we heat up the enzyme catalase beyond boiling point or cool it down below
freezing, then it will not function because of denaturation.
Data: How temperature affects the function of Catalase
Contents

Bubbles (mm)

Temperature (F)

Positive or Negative
for catalase
functioning

Water without potato

66

Negative

Potato with water

30

67

Positive

Potato with hot water

160

Negative

Potato with cold

water

10

30

Positive

Graph:

Conclusion:
By doing this lab, I learned that if we heat up potato to a really high temperature, then
catalase will not function because it got denatured, but I also learned that at below freezing
temperature the enzyme still works but it slows down. My data supports this because we tested
catalase and potato at regular temperature, and we measured the oxygen bubbles at 30 mm. Then
we heated up catalase to 165 and the amount of oxygen bubbles measured was 5 mm which is a
significant decrease considering that we are measuring bubbles. But then we also cooled catalase
to 30 and we measured the bubbles at 10 mm, which signified that the enzyme was working but
at a slower pace. And in the graph, you can see that when we dramatically drop and increase the
temperature, we get less than half the amount of bubbles than we did at regular temperature. This
data supports my claim because the enzyme produced a minimal amount of bubbles at 165,
which tells us that the enzyme was not functioning the way it was supposed to. It also shows us

that temperature decrease slows down our enzymes function, since the enzyme produced 10 mm
of bubbles which shows us that the enzyme was working, but at a much slower pace.
My hypothesis was proven to be 1/2 right because at a high temperature the enzyme did
not function, but the enzyme still functioned at a low temperature which tells me that the
enzymes do work at a low temperature but at a much slower pace. So now I know that it is
important to keep our bodys at a regular temperature in order for our enzymes to perform at
their highest levels. Some sources of error could have been not heating the enzyme high enough,
which happened to our group because the stove didn't work properly, also not measuring the
bubbles right, and mixing up our test tubes and mixing up our results. Ways that we can improve
this lab is by timing how long it takes for the cold catalase to get the amount of bubbles of the
regular catalase and compare the two. I think our results are conclusive because theres not that
big of a window for error and theres only one right and one wrong answer, either the enzyme
works or it doesnt.