How Enzymes Work (from PDB-101)

Every second inside every living cell, thousands of chemical reactions are taking place. These reactions constitute the essential tasks of life such as metabolism, protein synthesis, cell renewal and growth. Learn how the proteins called enzymes work to maintain the rate of these reactions at a life-sustaining level.

Based on atomic structures from the PDB archive, observe the mechanism of aconitase, an enzyme of the citric acid cycle, to understand how enzymes utilize their amino acid residues to catalyze a reaction.

Story by: David S. Goodsell and Maria Voigt

Animation and Video Editing by: Maria Voigt

Narration by: Brian Hudson

Subtitles available in:
English
Catalan (translation by Marc Isbert)
Spanish (translation by Marc Isbert)
French (translation by Marie-Cécile Darmon)

[RCSBProteinDataBank]

To contribute subtitles to this video in your language, use this community contribution link:

[michaeladdis]

I've always wanted to know the exact mechanism of how chemical bonds are rearranged in an enzyme's active site instead of just "enzymes speed up a chemical reaction". This helped me gain some insight on that. Thanks a lot!

[cancelled_user]

I can't believe we have really mapped every individual atom, it's position and movement within such huge molecules. At least that's how it appears to me in this kind of animation. It's absolutely amazing.

[robertspath]

Biology professors around the world thank you for this wonderful video!

[HalimSakarya]

Awesome animation. Please, please, please produce more like this.

[rsrt]

From what i understand, those reactions really do make those popping sounds.

[KatieRea-zf]

This animation beautifully illustrates the dynamic dance happening at the molecular level and makes a complex topic surprisingly accessible.

[BonyMotoFilms]

Finally got relief from my hunger of visualising this complex reactions. Thank you so much🙏🏻. More videos like this please

[michellebillen]

I can not believe how detailed and clear this video was! Thank you so much!

[Laptevwalrus]

Imagine, every school lecture was accompanied with such a vivid visual explanation. Bet we would have been PhDs at graduation

[ultiumlabs]

this is THE BEST 3D animation I found about enzymes, super clear explanation, beyond my expectation. thank you thank thank you!!!

[nagualdesign]

Incredible. The physics of molecular biology, the complexity of evolution, the ingenuity of biologists to have worked all this out, the quality and accuracy of the computer model, the generosity of the uploader; all very impressive.

[nels]

BRAVO! This is the best video I have seen of enzyme action, I will be sharing this with my students.

[bennymartin]

Great explanation on what enzymes are and how they assist in the chemical reaction process. Thanks a lot.

[MDZac]

Superb video with amazing animation. Absolutely stunning that our DNA codes for such a vast array of protein structures. Thank you for sharing.

[theeraphatsunthornwit]

yesterday my citrate friend went to that enzyme hole, he came out a totally different person.

[mortengrftehauge]

Amazing video but please please please add subtitles. My students are not native English speakers and their language skills vary greatly. The automatic CC is very good but this subject matter is too specialised and some things in the subtitles just do not make sense at all.

[ArgothaWizardWars]

This was really cool.  Very clear and great and understandable animations.  More people need to see stuff like this to understand the absurdity of these vastly complex systems originating by random processes.

[ronkirk]

Even though I went on to become a mechanical engineer, I really enjoyed chemistry (only inorganic required) and have always wanted to learn more. This was a great animated video which really allows visualization of how enzymes work (Duh, I guess that was what you were going for).

[greggrobinson]

So incredibly cool! Here we see lifeless matter groping its way towards being alive. Could anything be more miraculous?