Hemoglobin

One Of Life’s Great Proteins – Hemoglobin

Hemoglobin is a protein, which is one of the four basic biological molecules of life. Proteins have many functions and are versatile molecules. They are important for building and repairing cells and tissues and also as enzymes that are used in catabolic processes within an organism. Hemoglobin is the main substance of the red blood cell and it helps red blood cells carry oxygen from the air in our lungs to all the parts of our body. The other three molecules of life are carbohydrates, lipids, and nucleic acids. Proteins can also be called polypeptide chains because they are made up of subunits, amino acids that are linked with peptide bonds. Since hemoglobin has such an importance to the function in our bodies it has an importance in our society as well. In order to understand how and why hemoglobin is essential one must understand the chemistry behind this molecule.

There are thousands of different polypeptides due to the variety of amino acid arrangements in forming chains. Amino acids are organic compounds that have an amino group, a hydrogen atom, and a carboxyl group attached to an asymmetric carbon (a carbon that has four different

. . .

View the whole essay, without interruption

Hemoglobin’s ability to carry oxygen lies in its structure: constructed of four subunits, each subunit contains a heme unit and a polypeptide chain. Therefore, DPG moves the O2 binding curve so that hemoglobin will release its O2 in capillaries. Normal hemoglobin just gives up its oxygen when it gets to the tissue that needs it, but it retains its shape.

Use in Society of Hemoglobin (Disease):

The sickle cell disease is a hereditary blood disorder that affects red blood cells and is caused by the abnormalities of the hemoglobin in our red blood cells. Depending on which tRNA molecule it is, it will attract a corresponding amino acid. When this molecule (heme) is not in a ring structure and does not have an iron atom it is called a Biliverdin. Hemes are converted back into Biliverdin when the red blood cells that carry the hemoglobin die. These are alpha helix, which is a coiled polypeptide chain, and a beta-pleated, which is a fanned type structure of a polypeptide chain. Some of these classifications are determined based on their structure. Proteins undertake four structures in order to get to their final structure. View Figure 7 to examine the quaternary structure of hemoglobin. The genes that are found on chromosome 11 are beta, gamma, delta, and epsilon (sum known as non-alphas). See Figure 10 to view the alpha and beta globin Gene clusters. Chlorophyll, a special pigment found in the chloroplast of green plants, is another model of a poryphin-based molecule. In all amino acids these three groups are always present.

Approximate Word count = 4773
Approximate Pages = 19 (250 words per page double spaced)

Simply subscribe to view this paper, and 100,000 others.