Question

Increase or decrease in _________ leads to protonation or deprotonation of bases which leads to melting of DNA in turn isolating the enzyme after centrifugation.

(a) temperature

(b) ionic strength

(c) pH

(d) detergent use

I got this question in homework.

The origin of the question is Isolation of Enzymes topic in chapter Enzyme Extraction and Isolation of Enzyme Technology

Answer 1

Correct option is (c) pH

The explanation: Protons are responsible for maintain the biologically native structure of enzymes and nucleic acids. Hence increase or decrease in pH results in protonation or deprotonation of bases which leads to denaturation if DNA. The resultant extract in then centrifuged to isolate enzymes. The main limitation of this technique is the loss of enzymes due to denaturation.