In this video, we're going to talk about some environmental factors that affect enzyme activity. Enzyme activity is defined as a measure of the amount of product that is produced by an enzyme in a certain amount of time. If an enzyme produces a lot of product within a given amount of time, the enzyme has a lot of activity. But, if the enzyme only produces a little bit of product within a given amount of time, then the enzyme only has a little bit of activity. Many environmental factors can affect an enzyme's activity.

We're not going to talk about all the factors that can affect an enzyme's activity, but we will discuss three of those factors. These include the temperature, as the first environmental factor. The temperature can either include high temperatures, low temperatures, or temperatures in between the two. Another thing that could potentially affect the enzyme's activity is going to be the pH of the solution, whether the pH is acidic, neutral, or basic. Last but not least, the third environmental factor that we're going to talk about that affects enzyme activity is the concentration of reactants.

Depending on the concentration of reactants, the enzyme will have either high or low activity. It's also important to recall from our previous lesson videos that several environmental factors like high temperatures or even acidity can cause a protein to denature. Most enzymes are proteins, and thus, several environmental factors can cause enzymes to denature as well. Recall that denatured proteins or enzymes will lose their shape. When they lose their shape, they lose their function.

Denatured enzymes, because they lose their shape, therefore have decreased enzymatic activity. Basically, the temperature needs to be just right for an enzyme to have optimal activity. If the temperature is too high or even too low, the enzyme will not have optimal activity. The same goes for the pH. The pH cannot be too low or too acidic, or too high or too basic. Otherwise, that will affect the enzyme's activity and there needs to be a very specific pH for the enzyme to work optimally or at its best. The same goes for the concentration of reactants. If the concentration of reactants is too low, then the enzyme will not be able to produce a lot of product. If the concentration of reactants is too high, that could potentially oversaturate the enzyme, leading to the enzyme not working properly. This concludes our introduction to how environmental factors can affect enzyme activity, and we'll be able to get some practice applying these concepts as we move forward in our course.

So, I'll see you all in our next video.