Question

Why would cells need more than one type of chaperone?

Short answer

The chaperone molecules are protein and can undergo misfolding as well due to stressful conditions. If one type of chaperone proteins fold improperly, another type of chaperones can recover them from their non-native structure to their stable native structure. Hence, cells need to contain more than one type of chaperones.

Step-by-step solution

 Molecular chaperones

Proteins start folding as they are being synthesized in vivo. But, not all the proteins can fold properly always. In that case, we need molecular chaperones to bind to the unfolded or partially folded proteins and fold them to their stable native structure. This way, the molecular chaperones prevent the protein aggregation and precipitation.

Heat shock proteins

Most of the heat shock proteins are molecular chaperones that bind to the incorrectly folded proteins that were damaged due to exposure to stressful conditions to refold and stabilize their correctly folded structure.

Cells need more than one type of chaperone

The heat shock proteins are one type of molecular chaperones that exhibit a higher rate of synthesis at higher temperature. Now, at this higher temperature, the heat shock proteins can show a misfolded non-native structure. Thus, additional chaperones are required to recover those misfolded proteins.

Moreover, additional chaperones are also needed to rescue the heat-denatured proteins.