title: Biochemistry students' ideas about how an enzyme interacts with a substrate.
abstract: Enzyme-substrate interactions are a fundamental concept of biochemistry that is built upon throughout multiple biochemistry courses. Central to understanding enzyme-substrate interactions is specific knowledge of exactly how an enzyme and substrate interact. Within this narrower topic, students must understand the various binding sites on an enzyme and be able to reason from simplistic lock and key or induced fit models to the more complex energetics model of transition state theory. Learning to understand these many facets of enzyme-substrate interactions and reasoning from multiple models present challenges where students incorrectly make connections between concepts or make no connection at all. This study investigated biochemistry students' understanding of enzyme-substrate interactions through the use of clinical interviews and a national administration (N = 707) of the Enzyme-Substrate Interactions Concept Inventory. Findings include misconceptions regarding the nature of enzyme-substrate interactions, naïve ideas about the active site, a lack of energetically driven interactions, and an incomplete understanding of the specificity pocket.
authors: Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia, 30144.
authors: Kimberly J
authors: KJ
authors: Linenberger
authors: Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, 45056.
authors: Stacey Lowery
authors: SL
authors: Bretz
mesh_terms: D001665:Binding Sites; D001671:Biochemistry / Q000193:education*; D020134:Catalytic Domain; D032882:Comprehension; D004789:Enzyme Activation; D004798:Enzymes / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D013334:Students; D013379:Substrate Specificity
chemical_list: D004798:Enzymes
keywords: active site; assessment and design of probes for student understanding and learning; catalytic triad; enzymes; specificity pocket; student conceptual and reasoning difficulties; substrates; textbook diagrams; transition state theory