Carp are fishes that thrive in stagnant-water habitats with low oxygen partial pressure. Compared with the hemoglobin of many other fish species, carp hemoglobin has an extremely high affinity for O2. Draw an oxygen–hemoglobin equilibrium curve showing separate lines for carp and a fish that lives in water with a higher oxygen partial pressure. Explain why they differ.

Video transcript

Hello, everyone here We have a question telling us. Compared to adult hemoglobin, fetal hemoglobin has a blank affinity for oxygen. Thus the fetal oxygen dissociation curve exhibits a blank shift. So if we're charting, we're going to chart oxy hemoglobin, fractional saturation versus oxygen partial pressure. So our adult hemoglobin is going to look like this. And compared to adult hemoglobin, fetal hemoglobin has a higher affinity for oxygen, so it's going to be shifted to the left so it will look like this. So our answer here is d higher leftward compared to adult hemoglobin, fetal hemoglobin has a higher affinity for oxygen. Thus the fetal oxygen dissociation curve exhibits a leftward shift. Thank you for watching. Bye!