Maltose is hydrolysed by the enzyme maltase. Explain why maltase catalyses only this reaction.

The enzyme maltose will always fold into in a tertiary structure, which results in the active site being in a specific shape that only the substrate maltase can bind to. This is often illustrated using the analogy of a lock and key, where the enzyme maltose is the lock and the substrate maltase is the key. Maltose and maltase form an enzyme-substrate complex when bound to each other, which causes hydrolysis of maltase.