Practice Flashcards
Flip to reveal answersWhat determines a protein's function?
Track your progress — Sign up free to save your progress and get smart review reminders based on spaced repetition.
All 13 Flashcards — Infinite variety of possible peptide chains
Sign up free to track progress and get spaced-repetition review schedules.
Question
What determines a protein's function?
Answer
Its specific **3-D shape**, which comes from the **order of its amino acids**.
Question
What is meant by the functional diversity of proteins?
Answer
Proteins, as a group, can carry out a very **wide range of different jobs** — more than any other type of molecule.
Question
Name a protein that acts as an enzyme, and what it does.
Answer
**Amylase** — it **catalyses** the breakdown of starch into sugar.
Question
Name a transport protein and what it carries.
Answer
**Haemoglobin** — it **carries oxygen** in red blood cells.
Question
Name a structural protein and where it gives strength.
Answer
**Collagen** — it strengthens **skin, tendons and bone**.
Question
Name a protein hormone and what it signals.
Answer
**Insulin** — it signals cells to **take up glucose** from the blood.
Question
What role do antibodies perform?
Answer
**Defence** — they **bind to specific pathogens** so the body can destroy them.
Question
Which proteins make muscle contract?
Answer
**Actin and myosin** — contractile proteins that generate **movement**.
Question
Name a pigment protein and its job.
Answer
**Rhodopsin** — it **absorbs light** in the rod cells of the retina (needed for vision).
Question
Define a protein deficiency.
Answer
A **shortage of, or fault in, a particular protein**, so the job it normally does cannot be carried out.
Question
How do you predict the effect of a protein deficiency?
Answer
Name the **protein's job**, then state that this **job is lost** — so the process that relied on it **fails**.
Question
Which protein deficiency would most likely impair vision, and why?
Answer
A shortage of **rhodopsin** — it normally **absorbs light** in rod cells, so without it light is not detected and vision is impaired.
Question
Why can proteins do so many different jobs?
Answer
The 20 amino acids can be **ordered in countless ways**, giving countless **shapes** — each shape gives a different **function**.
Read the notes
Full study notes for Infinite variety of possible peptide chains
Topic 2.2 hub
Proteins
More from Topic 2.2
All flashcards in this topic
Biology exam skills
Paper structures & tips
Track your progress with spaced repetition
Sign up free — Aimnova tells you exactly which cards to review and when, so you remember everything before your IB exam.
Start Free