Refer to the Table Below Listing Several Protein Enzymes Found

Essay

Refer to the table below listing several protein enzymes found in modern cells, along with the rate constants of the reactions they catalyze in the presence of enzyme (k_enzyme) and in the absence of enzyme (k_non).The rate of a chemical reaction depends on its rate constant; the higher the rate constant, the greater the rate of reaction.Rate also depends on substrate and enzyme concentrations; however, for purposes of comparison, all concentrations have been kept constant with respect to these data.With this in mind, you can compare the rates of the catalyzed and noncatalyzed reactions using these rate constants. What can you infer from these data about why catalysts were likely to have been important in the origin of life?