Problem:
Under appropriate conditions, hemoglobin dissociates into its four subunits. Isolated alpha subunits bind oxygen, but the O2 saturation curve is hyperbolic instead of sigmoidal. In addition, the saturation curve is not affected by the presence of H+, CO2, or BPG.
Required:
Question: What do these observations indicate about the cooperativity and allosterism observed in hemoglobin? Explain thoroughly.