Hemoglobin is a protein with 4 sub-units, each with a heme group that contains one iron atom in it. The iron atom is bound to the heme group by the four nitrogens in the center of the heme, and a histidine that lies beneath the heme group. That leaves a sixth binding site open on the iron to bind an oxygen.
Chat with our AI personalities
A single haemoglobin molecule consists of four globin protein chains and four heme groups. Each heme group contains an iron atom. So, a haemoglobin molecule contains a total of four iron atoms along with many carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen atoms in the protein chains.
I'd be interested to know, myself.
It weighs ~ 64000 da. So at a REALLY rough guess, I'd say about 7500 atoms, just to give a picture. Please do update the answer if anybody knows/can find this.
Hmmm, you know that's a strange thing that scientists have been trying to figure out. Recently, they discovered that there were probably about 65-75 atoms in hemoglobin. Though the atoms aren't different, they're in large clusters.
Oxygen binds to haemoglobin through a reversible process where oxygen molecules interact with iron atoms at the center of the haem group in haemoglobin. This forms a temporary bond that allows oxygen to be transported from the lungs to tissues throughout the body, where it can be released for cellular use.
Haemoglobin is a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body. An example sentence would be: "Haemoglobin is essential for delivering oxygen to tissues throughout the body."
Neon is lighter than hemoglobin 50 times.
C8H16O8 has a total of 24 atoms (8 carbon atoms, 16 hydrogen atoms, and 8 oxygen atoms).
402 atoms