Question

Explain why mutations can increase or decrease the oxygen affinity and cooperativity of hemoglobin. How can the body compensate for those changes?

Short answer

Mutations can alter hemoglobin's oxygen affinity and co-operativity by changing its structure. The erythrocytes degrade the mutated hemoglobins.

Step-by-step solution

Effect of mutation

All the hemoglobin variants do not cause a debilitating disease, except for some abnormal mutations. Those abnormal mutations destabilize the tertiary or quaternary structure of the hemoglobin.Since the structure of hemoglobin is crucial for its usual oxygen binding, a change in the structure of hemoglobin causes the altercation of oxygen binding affinity and the co-operativity of hemoglobin.

Body’s compensation for the mutation

Our body degrades the unstable hemoglobins through the erythrocytes. The degradation products of the hemoglobins often cause the erythrocytes to break open