GAMSAT Biology – Importance of Enzymes

Logical Reasoning in Biological and Physical Sciences constitute the entire of section III in GAMSAT. Though all the questions in this section are aptitude based, still possessing a basic understanding in the concerned topics will be a wise decision. One such important topic in GAMSAT biology is – “Enzymes and its use in bioassays”. A GAMSAT aspirant may wonder why we need to concentrate on individual topics like this for GAMSAT preparation. Well, the factor working behind this is Time-management. Since GAMSAT is a time-bound examination, so we need to spend as much minimum amount of time as possible for answering a single question, without sacrificing accuracy. Sound background knowledge in a particular topic surely helps in this context, as the candidate can get into the questions and answer them faster.

Enzymes are biological catalysts, because they are protein molecules secreted by living cells and they play active role in catalysing the metabolic reactions within all organisms. If we look into the past few years of GAMSAT section III questionnaires or the ACER practice booklets, we will find numerous questions on linked with enzymatic action, either directly or indirectly. Let us consider a representative example to understand the importance.

Question: Mechanism of allosteric inhibition is explained in the following example.

The allosteric inhibitor J, can’t affect the synthesis of the product –

(A) H
(B) G
(C) C
(D) I

Now, without any background idea on allosteric inhibition mechanism in enzymes, a GAMSAT candidate has to spend considerable amount of time to relate the mechanism and grasp the situation properly. But, the time allotted for answering a single question of GAMSAT section III is less than 2 mins. So, if one spends more than that in a particular question then he has to pay the price by shortage of time in hand for other questions. Similarly, other enzyme-related questions are also frequent in the GAMSAT section III, like –

Question: Given below are two statements, one is Assertion and the other is Reason. Choose the correct option out of the four alternatives.

Statement I: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) is a key analytical technique for detection and measurement of specific biomolecules such as protein hormones.

Statement II: This technique use antibodies and are highly sensitive to the target biomolecule.

(A) Statement I is assertion and Statement II is reason.
(B) Statement I is reason and Statement II is assertion.
(C) Both the Statements are assertion.
(D) Both the Statements are reason.

Here also, a basic concept on ELISA would prove more than a handful while answering the question.

Thus, it cannot be denied that important topics in Biology like “Enzymes and their use in Bioassays” forms an integral part of GAMSAT Biology. Hence, each and every prospective GAMSAT candidate should get a basic understanding in the topic, at least.