What is the role of enzymes inside a lysosome?
1 Answer
Digestive enzymes within the lysosome perform a majority of the cells catabolism (taking apart large molecules into their smaller units)
Explanation:
when a cell digests food particles. it breaks down chains of DNA or protein into their monomer sub-units (nucleotides and amino acids) using digestive enzymes. this allows the cells to use these monomers as building blocks to build new molecules and operate normally.
If a cell contains foreign bodies, damaged organelles or invaders, the cell could sequester those bodies in a vesicle and fuse that vesicle with the lysosome so that they could be destroyed.
Fun Fact! This effect can backfire, as when a malformed protein (ie. prion) can't be broken down by the lysosome, they accumulate in the lysosome and eventually cause it to rupture - once ruptured the cell eats itself from the inside out and it results in cell death. A common example of this disorder is Bovine Spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or Mad cow disease). The prion causes cells to randomly burst within your brain, causing "brain death" (encephalopathy) by making holes in the brain tissue (form of sponge), with the original misfolded protein originating in cows (bovine).
