Write an abstract for this experiment. An abstract is a short paragraph (three to five sentences) that communicates the purpose of the experiment and states the specific conclusions determined by the experiment. Do not go into detail about the protocol. The purpose of this experiment was to measure the optimal pH and temperature at which a phosphatase enzyme from an alfalfa sprout would work. Different pH buffers were created in which the optimal pH would be tested. Different temperatures were tested using a singular buffer. After the experiment was complete, phosphatase activity was measured based on the values of absorbance at 490 nm.
A student added sodium carbonate to a reaction tube and the color remained clear. Propose three specific reasons why they saw no color change.
The student may have no added any of the substrate into the solution. The student may have forgot to add the enzyme to the solution. The student may have denatured the enzyme before putting it into the tube.
Increasing the temperature of a chemical reaction generally favors product formation. Propose a hypothesis for why the 75oC reaction conditions did not produce the most activity.
A vegetative storage protein (VSP2) from the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana (At) was purified as a wild-type (AtVSP2) and a recombinant protein (Nus-AtVSP2). D119E is an aspartic acid to glutamic acid substitution at amino acid position 119. The phosphatase activity was measured under different pH conditions (adapted from Liu et. al. Plant Physiol. 2005;139:1545-1556).
What scientific conclusions can be made about the adding the Nus recombinant tag to AtVSP2? (Do not just describe the graph. A scientific conclusion should include an interpretation of the data.)