The apparatus pictured below was set up to determine the con

The apparatus pictured below was set up to determine the conditions under which an enzyme acts. Each test tube was filled to the three-fourths mark with the liquid indicated. The narrow tubing was charged with boiled egg white. At the end of a 1-day incubation period, the egg white at the ends of the capillary tube in test tube 2 has disappeared. What is the MOST reasonable conclusion that can be drawn from this experiment? Hydrolysis of egg white occurs at the end of a long incubation period. Egg white can be digested only by the enzyme pepsin. Enzymes become activated in an acid medium. Egg white must be boiled before enzyme activity can occur. Pepsin must be in an acid medium to affect egg white hydrolysis.

Solution

Answer:

pepsin must be in an acid medium to affect egg white hydrolysis.

Explanation:

Pepsin is a proteolyic (protein splitting) enzyme produced in the gastric glands lining the stomach of vertebrates. It is produced as pepsinogen, a larger molecule that is activated by hydrochloric acid to the smaller pepsin molecule.

Pepsin can only work in a low pH environment, (optimum pH~1.8).