Enzymes are biomolecules that catalyze, or increase the rate of, chemical reactions. Proteins are responsible for nearly all enzymes, but RNA molecules can be catalysts, too. In the beginning of the process, the enzymes that start the chemical reaction are call substrates; these substrates convert the molecules into what is termed the product. Because enzymes only use certain substrates, they speed up only certain reactions among many, many possibilties. Therefore, the set of enzymes in a cell determine what metabolic pathways occur in that cell.
Metabolic pathways are a series of chemical reactions that occur within a cell. In each pathway, a main chemical is modified, or changed, by chemical reactions that are sped up by enzymes. Often, dietary minerals, vitamins, and cofactors are necessary in order for these enzymes to function properly. For example, for older pets, people must purchase dietary supplements which enable digestive enzymes to help with their metabolism, which is a step-by-step modification of the initial molecule to shape it into another product to be stored by the cell, to be used immediately as a metabolic product, or to initiate another meatbolic pathway, called a flux generating step.
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