Question: In 'My Work', you explained that gribbles have enzymes. What jobs do enzymes do and do we have them too?

Emma Markham answered on 13 Jun 2019:

This is a great Question, Thank you!
Yes, we have enzymes, and so do almost all animals. Enzymes helps speed up chemical reactions, this is really important, we have a lot of enzymes in our digestive tract which helps us break down food.
Here is a really great YouTube video explaining how enzymes work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgVFkRn8f10

In the case of the gribble, it has special enzymes which no other creature has, this allows it to break down the wood into something which can be turned into fuel. Very few creatures can eat and digest wood because the walls of the cell are made of proteins which most animals cannot digest, so they wouldn’t be able to gain the nutrients from it.

Studying and discovering new enzymes is a whole area of research, as this can help us in a lot of ways. For example, a company which makes washing powder asked its customers what they wanted, they told the company they want a washing powder which removes the yellow sweat marks and smells from clothing. This is difficult because it is an oily protein produced in our sweat and no chemical would break this down without destroying the fabric. However, enzymes are really specific and will only target one thing, so they developed an enzyme which would break down this component of sweat, and so was able to clean clothing better and make their customers happy. This is why we call some washing powders non-bio and bio, this refers to if they use biological enzymes or not. If you use enzymes you need to wash the clothes at a specific temperature, as enzymes have a specific temperature they prefer and if it is too hot they will stop working.