Download Swamp Thing

CIS Unit
Swamp Thing:
Enzymes outside the body
(9th and 10th grade Biology)
 SC.912.L.18.11 as L.18.1: Explain the role of enzymes as catalysts that lower
the activation energy of biochemical reactions. Identify factors, such as pH
and temperature, and their effect on enzyme activity.
 SC.912.L.18.4 as L.18.1: Describe the structures of proteins and amino acids.
Explain the functions of proteins in living organisms. Identify some reactions
that amino acids undergo. Relate the structure and function of enzymes.
 SC.912.L.18.1: Describe the basic molecular structures and primary functions
of the four major categories of biological macromolecules.
CIS Lesson
Swamp Thing
1. Hook Engage:
What are some things that you find in a swamp?
What are some things that you find in a swamp that can clean clothes?
2. Question #1
Predict how enzymes work to clean clothes.
3.
Pass out article (Teacher can read article aloud if desired)
4. Pre-teach vocabulary
a. Protease
b. Catalysts
c. Molecule
d. Denatured
e. Intricately
f. Tenaciously
g. Recalcitrant
h. Soluble
i. Plasmids
5. Text-marking
PE = Properties or Characteristics of Enzymes
AST = Advantages of Swamp Thing
PP = Properties of Proteins that stain clothes
6. Question #2
How do enzymes work to remove stains from clothing? Make sure to discuss the environmental
factors that affect how they work. Support your answer with examples from the text.
7. Note-taking: How does the Swamp Thing do its magic?
8. Vote
Which would provide for the most effective AND eco-friendly cleaner?
Group
Individual
Detergent Alone
Enzyme Alone
Detergent + Enzyme
Recount Individual
9. An individual representing each position presents a persuasive argument in favor of their position.
A recount is conducted to allow student to change their vote.
10. Question #3
You are a copywriter for an advertising firm that has been contracted to promote Swamp Thing
to manufactures for inclusion in their cleaning products. Manufactures must know two things: 1)
what are the unique advantages of Swamp Thing; and 2) how does Swamp Thing work to produce
these advantages. Construct advertising copy that is at least 2 paragraphs addressing Swamp
Thing’s advantages. Site specific examples from the text, but feel free to draw information from
other sources as well.
#1 Predict how enzymes work to clean clothes.
#2 How do enzymes work to remove stains from clothing? Make sure to discuss the
environmental factors that affect how they work. Support your answer with examples from
the text.
CIS Lesson
Swamp Thing
(Text is handout)
Vocabulary
Protease – P. 1
Catalysts – P. 2
Molecule – P. 3
Denatured – P. 4
Recalcitrant – P. 8
Intricately – P. 8
Tenaciously – P. 8
Soluble – P. 10
Plasmids – P. 11
Swamp Thing
Vocabulary
Protease
Paragraph 1
Definition: An enzyme that breaks down
proteins and peptides.
Catalyst
Paragraph 2
Molecule
Denatured
Paragraph 3
Definition: 1.A substance that increases
the rate of a chemical reaction without
itself undergoing any permanent chemical
change.
Definition: Smallest unit of a covalently
bonded compound.
Recalcitrant
Paragraph 8
Intricately
Paragraph 8
Definition: having many interrelated parts
or facets; entangled or involved
Tenaciously
Paragraph 8
Definition: holding fast; characterized by
keeping a firm hold
Soluble
Paragraph 10
Definition: capable of being dissolved in a
liquid
Plasmids
Paragraph 11
Definition: a segment of DNA independent
of the chromosomes and capable of
replication, occurring in bacteria and yeast:
used in recombinant DNA procedures to
transfer genetic material from one cell to
another.
Paragraph 4
Definition: Destroy the characteristic
properties of (a protein or other biological
macromolecule) by heat, acidity, or other
effects.
Definition: defiant, unapologetic
Synonyms: contrary, ungovernable, defiant
Swamp Thing
(Text is handout)
Text Marking
PCE
= Properties
or Characteristics
of Enzymes
AST
PP
= Advantages
= Properties
of Swamp Thing
of Proteins that stain
clothes
Swamp Thing Washes Whiter1:
Enzymes outside the body
AN UNLIKELY slogan for a new detergent? Perhaps, but it is an unlikely detergent. It does, however, come
from a good family. Some 60% of the enzymes used in industry belong to a group known as proteases, which
attack proteins. They are used to make cheese, to make meat more tender and to improve dough, among
other things. A few proteases are added to detergents, but many enzymes cannot stand temperatures much
above 40°C. Washing machines can. An enzyme's activities may also be impaired or destroyed when it finds
itself mixed with other chemicals. So there are limits to their usefulness. Enter the thing from the swamp.
What is an Enzyme?2
Enzymes are catalysts made by living organisms. There are thousands of different chemical reactions taking
place in living things and almost every reaction has its own associated enzyme. There are, therefore, vast
numbers of different enzymes.
The shape of each enzyme is determined by the sequence of amino acids it contains and the way in which
they link up to form a particular three-dimensional molecule. One part of this molecule is an active site — the
part of the enzyme that interacts with the chemical or chemicals involved in the reaction it catalyzes. This site
recognizes the shape of the chemicals and reduces the amount of energy needed to join them together — or
split them apart, as happens in digestive processes.
Enzymes are affected by temperature and pH. At both high temperatures and extremes of pH, they change
shape. The active site changes shape too, and no longer matches up with the chemicals involved in the
reaction, which slows down or stops. The effect on protein structure can be permanent, in which case the
enzymes are denatured.
Some organisms, especially bacteria, live in extreme conditions, for example around volcanic steam vents.
There are evidently some proteins that are much less affected by what we regard as ‘extreme’ temperatures.
Dr Todd Gusek, a food scientist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, has discovered a protease without
the usual shortcomings. He isolated it from a rare strain of a heat-loving soil bacterium, Thermomonospora
fusca. So far his particular strain - dubbed YX - has been found only in a mangrove swamp on the Yucatan
Peninsula in Mexico.
The enzyme is rather good at breaking down all sorts of plant and animal proteins at temperatures of up to
85°C. The hotter it is, the better it works. At 80°C it works 13 times faster than subtilisin, the most popular
protease in current detergents. And it is unworried by high concentrations of detergents or by chemicals such
as salts that are sometimes added to them.
Proteins are to blame for the most recalcitrant stains on clothing - such as blood, grass and wine stains. This is
because of geometry. Protein molecules are intricately folded things; when they meet fabric, they unravel,
exposing reactive chemicals that are normally buried inside their molecules. These chemicals bind tenaciously
to the fabric and an ordinary detergent has difficulty in removing the now-sticky molecules. Add a protease to
the detergent, and the protease attacks the bonds along the protein's chain of molecules and breaks them
into fragments which a detergent can more easily mop up.
YX protease could help with any number of processes for which other proteases are already used. Its efficiency
means that relatively small amounts of enzyme are needed; the high temperatures it works at mean that the
risk of contamination of a product by microbes is vastly reduced. It has already been employed to clean
filtration membranes that are used to concentrate milk. In one test, it cleaned the membranes in an hour,
instead of the day that existing cleaners take.
Another application for the enzyme might be to help make protein hydrolysates. These are protein-rich liquid
foods administered through tubes to patients recovering from operations. They consist of the soluble
components of proteins - peptides and amino acids. Another idea is to use it as the base for a contact-lens
cleaner, to get rid of proteins from the eye's surface.
The enzyme is still being tested, but already companies in America, Western Europe and Japan are sniffing
around it. The next step is to find a way to mass-produce it. Thermomonospora secretes its protease in minute
quantities. The plan is to tinker with the genes of another species of soil bacterium which is used to make
antibiotics. Dr Gusek and his colleagues aim to take the gene that codes for YX protease in Thermomonospora
and put it into ring-shaped DNA molecules, called plasmids, from the other microbe. The hope is that once
these altered plasmids are returned to their original owners, large quantities of the enzyme should be
forthcoming.
1The
Economist (US). 310.7592 (Mar. 4, 1989): p80. From Health Reference Center Academic.
Nigel. "Enzymes outside the body: enzymes allow chemical reactions in all living things to proceed
quickly, under conditions where they would normally be very slow. Scientists realised that enzymes could be
isolated and used to catalyse reactions outside living organisms. This was the start of a major biotechnology
industry, which still developing." Catalyst Feb. 2003: 8+. Health Reference Center Academic. Web. 13 June
2012.
2Collins,
Directed Note-Taking
Directions: Record notes containing the most important information relevant to the guiding question.
Swamp Thing
(Text is handout)
Guiding Question: How does Swamp Thing do its magic?
Do your questions pertain to any of the categories to the right? If yes, please put a check.
Check Relevant Categories
Page/
Paragraph#
Notes
Properties or
Characteristics
of Enzymes
Collaborative Work:
After completing your chart, be prepared to compare your notes with others.
Advantages
of Swamp
Thing
Properties
of Proteins
Question Generator
Directions: Go back through the text and find words, phrases or statements that create questions in your mind. Discuss
these questions in your group, and then document your group’s questions below.
Swamp Thing
Page/
Paragraph#
Questions
Properties or
Characteristics
of Enzymes
Collaborative Work:
After completing your chart, be prepared to compare your notes with others.
Advantages
of Swamp
Thing
Properties of
Proteins
Directions: Write your answer to the question using information you learned in this unit. Be sure to use information
from the text to justify your answer. Be sure to use complete sentences and correct punctuation and grammar.
#3 You are a copywriter for an advertising firm that has been contracted to promote Swamp Thing to
manufactures for inclusion in their cleaning products. Manufactures must know two things: 1) what are
the unique advantages of Swamp Thing; and 2) how does Swamp Thing work to produce these
advantages. Construct advertising copy that is at least 2 paragraphs addressing Swamp Thing’s
advantages. Site specific examples from the text, but feel free to draw information from other
sources as well.
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