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All 13 Flashcards — Protein functions
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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**.
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Topic 2.2 hub
Proteins
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