lactase, enzyme, catalyst, rice, soy, cow, quality control, glucose, sucrose, galactose, fructose, specificity, activation energy, substrate, active site, disaccharide, monosaccharide, pH, acid, base, neutral, digestive system, intestines, stomach, qualitative, quantitative, independent variable, dependent variable
Lactase deficiency, also known as lactose intolerance, is a condition caused by an absence of the enzyme lactase, a digestive enzyme found in the human body. Since the human body can't absorb lactose it needs to be broken down by lactase into its two monosaccharide products, glucose and galactose. Like most other enzymes lactase is specific to just one substrate, in this case, the sugar lactose.
Those who are lactose intolerant seek treatment through medications that contain lactase as an active ingredient. In this lab your students will determine the optimal pH that the enzyme works at. Before they can do that however, they will need to determine which one of three unlabelled milks is cow's milk. They will use lactose and glucose test strips to do so.
Upon completion of Looking Into Lactase students will be able to:
Pre-Laboratory
Laboratory
Post-Laboratory
NIH/NIDDK
Read about the causes of lactose intolerance and how it is diagnosed.
http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/lactoseintolerance
Enzyme Resources
Learn about how enzymes work, how they are named, how they are affected by temperature and pH, and more.
http://acsbiology.info/Enzymes.aspx
http://leavingbio.net/ENZYMES.htm
Enzymes
What is an enzyme
http://programs.northlandcollege.edu/biology/Biology1111/animations/enzyme.html
