haemoglobin function
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Haemoglobin is responsible for
binding oxygen in the lung and transporting the oxygen to tissue to be used in aerobic metabolic pathways
Why is it good that haemoglobin is soluble in water
As oxygen is not very soluble in water and haemoglobin is, oxygen can be carried more efficiently around the body when bound to the haemoglobin
The presence of the haem group (and Fe2+) enables small molecules like oxygen to
to be bound more easily because as each oxygen molecule binds it alters the quaternary structure (due to alterations in the tertiary structure) of the protein which causes haemoglobin to have a higher affinity(strength in which molecules can interact) for the subsequent oxygen molecules and they bind more easily
The existence of the iron II ion (Fe2+) in the prosthetic haem group also allows oxygen to reversibly ……… as
bind none of the amino acids that make up the polypeptide chains in haemoglobin are well suited to binding with oxygen