Temperature Dependance of Maltase’s Enzymatic Activity

Abstract

Maltase is an enzyme which is responsible for the breakdown of maltose, a disaccharide, into two glucose monomers. Temperature is an important factor which largely determines the function of maltase and its ability to catalyze reactions. Thus, the goal of our study was to determine the effects of temperature on the enzymatic activity of maltase. We hypothesized that the temperature at which maltase is exposed to would have a significant effect on the enzymatic activity of the enzyme. The enzymatic activity of maltase exposed to maltose-containing solutions at various temperatures were tested: 30℃, 40℃, 50℃, and 60℃. The glucose concentration of the resulting solutions were measured every minute for 5 minutes. The mean rates of change of glucose in the 30℃, 40℃, 50℃, and 60℃ samples were 6.00 +/- 30.66, 6.26 +/- 11.96, 3.93 +/- 7.88, and 5.09 +/- 18.00 mmol/L, respectively. A one-way ANOVA test determined that the rate of change of glucose at different temperatures was not statistically significant, thus our data did not support our hypothesis. While there were noticeable variations in the data, there was a general decrease in the enzymatic activity across all temperatures within the first minute. For future studies, it is recommended that the enzyme-containing maltose solution is vortexed prior to measuring the glucose concentration in order to ensure proper distribution of the enzyme throughout the sample.