Question

could some one describe at least three different functions of proteins and explain how the shape of a protein affects its function?

Answer 1

Well, you're made up of protein. What's your body do? Supports you so you're not a wrinkly bag of goo. Do you ever eat food? Proteins help break down pizza into smaller pieces by digesting, or in other words, breaking the chemical bonds. Think about all the stuff your body does, I'm sure you can come up with a third one!

Proteins are pretty small. They're so small they don't even have brains. So they don't do any thinking, they just sort of go with the flow. Often time this is quite literal. Their form is practically inseparable from their function. For instance, remember the digestion we talked about a second ago? The proteins that digest things are called enzymes, and enzymes are shaped so that two molecules bonded together can fit inside it and then it yanks them apart.

Answer 2

Read the chapter 5 concept 5.4 of Campbell & Reece Biology page 80-86

Answer 3

Proteins can act as catalysts for various chemical reactions, they speed up the kinetics of various catabolic and anabolic processes. For instance, many proteases generally catalyze the hydrolysis of peptide bonds between two amino acids, leading to faster degradation of polypeptides. Proteins can also serve as motor engines for a cell, for example, actin that are self-repeating to move either other proteins or even the whole cells from a location to another. Proteins are also building blocks that constitute an organism, eg. myosin that builds our muscles.

Often the shape of a protein determine/affect its function, as the very particular conformation of a protein allows only certain molecules to dock into its active site and let the catalysis begin. Obviously the properties of the amino acids inside a protein has a great impact on the protein's shape, so it is very much the matter of what is the sequence of amino acids are present and what side chains they bear.

I am new to this topic, hope you all can correct me if I'm wrong. Thank you.

Soon Keat

Answer 4

different proteins have different functions, with your question we can think of these 3 function in general
1.some (most cases) protein acting as enzymes
2.some proteins help to maintain structural frame work (like virus core proteins)
3.there are so many cannot generalize more,

protein shape is totally depend on the amino acid sequence it possess, environmnert (pH of the solution, temperature etc), any changes in those conditions will affect the nature of protein and there by functions.

Answer 5

A protein's shape is important because each protein has a specific action (or function) that it does, and it has to "fit" other molecules sometimes. For example, enzymes have active sites where the molucules bind to it. The active site is shaped to fit specific molecules. The enzyme sucrase only fits the sucrose molecule. Another example is hemoglobin, which does not have a nucleus because it functions as the carrying molecule for oxygen and needs the space for storage. Protein carrier molecules in cell membranes also have receptor sites that are shape specific to the molecule they are intended to transport.

A protein has 4 levels of structure and cannot funtion unless it has achieved the tertiary level. The primary level is the sequence of amino acids. The secondary level is the folding into sheets or coiling. The tertiary level involves a folding over into a blob of the secondary sheets and coils. The quaternary level is only achieved by some proteins, like hemoglobin, and is a aggregation of tertiary level proteins (hemoglobin has 4 tertiary level proteins in one big glob).

Actin and myosin in muscle cells are contractile proteins, and they function to contract muscles for movement. Myosin has a head shaped to attach to actin.

Denaturing a protein causes it to change shape and lose its functioning abilities.