Question

Suppose you take some raw egg white and mix it into a beaker of room temperature water to form a solution. If you boil the water, a precipitate will form in the water. Explain why heating the protein solution created the precipitate?

Answer 1

Heat results in coagulation of protein chains so white precipitate is formed.

Explanation:

• On heating, the hydrogen bond that stabilize the protein conformation breaks.
• The breaking of hydrogen bonds results in unfolding the tertiary structure of protein.
• The unfolded peptides then reform into new conformation and form a coagulum.
• This explains why a white precipitate is formed when protein solution is heated.