Which statements describe the characteristics of an individual protein? Select two options. It is specific to one biochemical reaction. It increases the activation energy needed for a reaction. It can catalyze many different reactions. It increases the rate of a biochemical reaction. It slows down the rate of a biochemical reaction.

- It is specific to one biochemical reaction.

- It increases the rate of a biochemical reaction.

Explanation:

All the selected sentences above correspond to a particular subset of proteins referred to as enzymes.

Enzymes function as biological catalysts that have the ability to accelerate chemical reactions. A catalyst is a molecule that functions by lowering the activation energy, but without altering the equilibrium of the reaction.

The enzymes are highly specific, it means that they bind specific substrates to exert their catalytic activities. Enzyme-substrate specificity is due to a series of features including 3D structure, complementary binding pockets in the enzyme, complementary charges, hydrophobic and hydrophilic characteristics, etc. These properties are collectively defined as stereospecificity, chemoselectivity and regioselectivity.