BIOL 121 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Ionic Bonding, Hemoglobin, Dephosphorylation
Document Summary
One of the key ideas of protein function is a ligand binding site. It is like a lock and key mechanism. Affinity- how likely it is to go into this. Once it goes there it will stay for a long time. 3 factors: shape, charge distribution, concentration of ligand. Specificity- doesn"t mean a monogamous relationship, you have multiple things that fit into this binding site but not just anything. There are a limited number of ligands that will fit there. There will be levels of affinity for this specificity. They could have the right shape for the site but not the right affinity. Competition- more than one ligand that can bind at the same site. Look at which is more likely to get in there: more with higher affinity (driven by shape and charge) or the one with the higher concentration.
