Question #103349
Compare the oxygen dissociation curves of haemoglobin and myoglobin.
Expert's answer
The oxygen dissociation curve for hemoglobin has a sigmoid shape because of the co-operative binding of oxygen to the 4 polypeptide chains. On the other hand, Myoglobin is made up of a single polypeptide with only one heme group and hence is not capable of cooperative binding. Thus the oxygen dissociation curve is not sigmoid but it is a hyperbola.
