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Proteins
Proteins are very important. They provide structure, and organic catalysts are mostly made of proteins. They can also be used to store energy. They are produced by the ribosomes in our cells.
As with almost everything else in the world, the function of anything depends on its structure. There are two kinds of proteins, and they both serve different purposes:
- fibrous proteins: They usually provide structure and are usually long and thin. Examples include muscles, hair, cartilage, veins, ducts, and other structures.
- globular proteins: The name describes their structure. These proteins usually do things other than structure, like transport oxygen and nutrients, fight invasions by foreign objects, help maintain homeostasis in the body, transport electrons, and catalyze reactions that would take too long in their absence. Most hormones are proteins. Enzymes are very important globular proteins, so we will get to that section in a bit.
