Do Bacteria Have Enzymes: 9 Facts You Should Know.

In this article we will know do bacteria have enzymes and also check out some facts regarding them.

Enzymes are the products that are produced inside the body of microorganisms like bacteria and are protein in nature.

The facts includes-

Do all bacteria have enzymes?
Why do bacteria need enzymes?
How do bacterial cells make enzymes?
Where are enzymes found in bacterial cells?
What are the enzymes found in bacteria?
Why do bacteria have restriction enzymes?
How do bacteria enzymes work?
How to extract enzymes from bacteria?

Let us discuss these facts in the detail and understand do bacteria have enzymes.

Do all bacteria have enzymes?

Enzymes are produced by all living cells. As bacteria comes under living organism, all of the bacteria produce enzymes that are necessary for their growth and reproduction.

The enzymes produced by bacteria, convert the complex waste material into simpler and smaller substances that the bacteria will consume as their food.

If these enzymes were not produced by the bacteria, then the complex substrate will take a very long amount of time to degrade or breakdown into the form that can be consumed by the bacteria and as a result, bacteria will not be able to survive and reproduce. It shows that do bacteria have enzymes.

Why do bacteria needs enzymes?

Enzymes are biocatalyst, produced inside the living cells that speeds up the rate of biochemical reaction. As most of the enzymes are protein in nature, we can simply say that enzymes are protein molecules having catalytic capabilities.

The enzymes produced by bacteria, convert the complex waste material into simpler and smaller substances that the bacteria will consume as their food.

do bacteria have enzymes — **Bacterial enzyme activity from Flickr**

How do bacterial cells make enzymes?

Bacterial cells make enzymes in the same way they produce protein because enzymes are nothing else but mostly protein with catalytic property.

Ribosomes help in protein production and these different types of protein moves to Endoplasmic reticulum (ER), where these proteins are packed and transported to their desired location in the cell to perform their assigned roles. It shows that do bacteria have enzymes. It shows that do bacteria have enzymes. It shows that do bacteria have enzymes.

Where are enzymes found in bacterial cells?

In bacterial cells, enzymes are generally found in the cytoplasm in the random manner. There are many copies of the same enzyme as well which are required for some essential cell processes.

What are the enzymes found in bacteria?

Some common enzymes found in bacteria are-

Lipases
Proteases
Amylases
Catalases
Xylanases

Why do bacteria have restriction enzymes?

Bacteria have restriction enzyme to protect themselves from the bacteriophage . Restriction enzymes are used as a means of defense mechanism by these bacteria.

These restriction enzyme recognize the viral DNA that might enter the bacterial cell and destroy it by cleaving the phosphodiester backbone of both strands of DNA. These enzymes are site specific, so they cleave the phosphodiester bone at highly specific sites only. It shows that do bacteria have enzymes.

Basically, these enzymes restrict the growth of organism and protect the bacterial cell so they are named as Restriction Enzymes.

How do bacteria enzymes work?

The sequence that is cleaved by the restriction enzymes are called as its target sequence. But these enzymes only degrade the target sequence that is present on the viral DNA and prevent it from incorporating into host (bacterial) genome.

These enzymes do not degrade the host DNA even the target sequence is present there. We can say that bacterias are immune to their restriction enzymes. Bacteria’s gain this immunity by the simple modification of their DNA. It shows that do bacteria have enzymes.

In the DNA, the methy is added wherever the target site of restriction enzyme is present, hence the DNA becomes methylated and these target sites are no longer recognizable by the restriction enzymes. As a result host genome is safe from the disruption action of these restriction enzymes.

How to extract enzymes from bacteria?

There are various ways to extract and isolate enzymes from microorganisms. In the case of bacteria, the enzymes are isolated from different methods. These methods are listed below.

Mechanical Process. In this process, the intracellular enzymes are isolated.
Ultrasonic Process.
Enzymatic Process.
Homogenizers, by giving high pressure.
Freezing.
Protein precipitation.
With the organic solvent.
With ethanol.
With polymers,
Nucleic acid precipitation.
With ammonium sulfate and sodium sulfate.

What are enzymes?

Enzymes are the products that are produced inside the body of microorganisms like bacteria and are protein in nature.

Bacteria are single celled organism (unicellular) and as like us, they also need oxygen, proper food and optimum temperature for their survival. Now these enzymes are specific in nature and different bacterial strains would produce different types of enzymes and in different amount.The enzymes produced by bacteria, convert the complex waste material into simpler and smaller substances that the bacteria will consume as their food and it answers do bacteria have enzymes.

Conclusion

At last, we can draw that we understood the point do bacteria have enzymes. It is an important part of the microbe and produces variety of enzymes.

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Arti Pandey

Hi…I am Arti Pandey, have a Master’s degree in Biotechnology. I am an academic writer in Lambdageeks and also a beginner Korean learner. I love to explore new cultures, places, and food. I love photography and had a keen interest in creative writing.