Explain why the one-gene:one-enzyme concept is not considered totally accurate today.

Question

Accepted Answer

Hi everyone. Welcome back. Let's look at our next problem, determine which of the following are drawbacks of the one gene one enzyme hypothesis. First of all, we look over our answer choices. Let's note the choice D. Is all of the above. So that is a possibility that all our answers are correct. And then let's recall from our content video. Um what the one gene, one enzyme hypothesis is and that's pretty straightforward. Remember given its name was just when scientists were trying to figure out what the connection was between DNA and protein and what genes actually did. Um It was the theory that every gene coded for a single enzyme that then served some sort of function in the body. Well, today obviously we know that each gene has the code for a polyp peptide chain. So jeans do code for enzymes but more specifically what we would say today. Our understanding is just a little bit modified from that, that each gene codes for one polyp peptide chain. So let's look to our answer choices and see which of those express. Um The drawbacks of that original hypothesis, choice A says not all genes produce enzymes and this is true. Some of those polyp peptide chains produced by those genes are going to be for proteins that are not enzymes. So you don't automatically have that correspondence choice B says all enzymes are proteins but not all proteins are enzymes and this is correct. Um similar to in choice A saying that not every single protein, not every single polyp peptide produced by a single gene serves a function as an enzyme. Since we've already got two correct answers. If we want to test we go ahead and choose choice D. All of the above, but we're just going to keep working through these choice C says an enzyme can contain one or more polyp peptides, and this is also true. Not all enzymes are made of just a single polyp peptide chain. Enzymes can have a quaternary structure where if they have multiple chains, that's the structure of how they're folded together to make the enzyme hemoglobin would be an example of an enzyme protein that has multiple subunits, multiple chains. So that's a big drawback of this hypothesis, in that some enzymes are made up of more than one polyp peptide chain and therefore need more than one gene to produce them. So again, which of the following are drawbacks. That one gene. One enzyme hypothesis that would be choice D. All of the B above. See you in the next video

Explain why the one-gene:one-enzyme concept is not considered totally accurate today.

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Key Concepts

One-Gene:One-Enzyme Hypothesis

Gene Structure and Protein Complexity

Non-Enzymatic Gene Products