Becker's World of the Cell 9th Edition by Lewis Kleinsmith, Jeff Hardin, Gregory Paul Bertoni

Exercise 4

Sickle-Cell Anemia. Sickle-cell anemia is a striking example of the drastic effect a single amino acid substitution can have on the structure and function of a protein.
(a)Given the chemical nature of glutamate and valine, can you suggest why substitution of valine for glutamate at position 6 of the chain would be especially deleterious
(b)Suggest several amino acids that would be much less likely than valine to cause impairment of hemoglobin function if substituted for the glutamate at position 6 of the chain.
(c)Can you see why, in some cases, two proteins could differ at several points in their amino acid sequence and still be very similar in structure and function Explain.