Question

What is active site of an enzyme? What sorts of interactions stabilize the binding of substrates and transition states? How does the free energy of binding contribute to the lowering of the activation energy of the reaction?

Answer 1

Active site is a critical element in the three-dimensional the region of an enzyme where substrate molecules bind and undergo a chemical reaction.

Shape and size of the active site and substrate along with a large number of noncovalent interactions such as hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic and hydrophilic interactions between the active site of an enzyme and substrates are responsible for stabilization.

Active site of an enzyme when interact with the substrat it brings down the entropy by bringing order to a disordered situation. Entropy is a component of Gibbs Free Energy, which in turn a component of the activation energy and hence decreases the activation energy.