Question

Is there a difference between haemoglobin in a fetus and in an adult? Would any structural differences effect O2 binding?

Answer 1

Yes, there are some differences between fetal and adult hemoglobin. In fact, it has been observed that fetal hemoglobin posses certain modifications that allows it to bind oxygen with much more affinity than the adult hemoglobin since oxygen is very important during development. The main difference between fetal and adult hemoglobin is that the fetal hemoglobin posses two alpha heme subunits and two gamma subunits while adult hemoglobin contains two alpha and two beta. This small difference allows the fetal hemoglobin to have more affinity for oxygen.