Q 01/05

Rhinoceros horn is made of which protein, the same material found in human hair and fingernails?

A) Collagen

B) Keratin

C) Elastin

D) Tubulin

Answer · why

B) Keratin

Keratin also builds feathers, claws, hooves and the outer layer of skin. Rhino horn has no proven health benefits, whatever the poaching trade claims.

Q 02/05

Miraculin, a protein from a West African berry, binds to taste receptors and makes sour foods taste how?

A) Sweet

B) Salty

C) Bitter

D) Savoury

Answer · why

A) Sweet

Sweet is how lemons and limes taste for an hour or two after miraculin coats the tongue. The protein has no sugary taste of its own.

Q 03/05

Green fluorescent protein, which earned a 2008 Nobel Prize, was first isolated from which glowing sea animal?

A) Anglerfish

B) Coral

C) Jellyfish

D) Squid

Answer · why

C) Jellyfish

Jellyfish of the species Aequorea victoria supplied the first GFP. Scientists now fuse its gene to other genes to watch proteins light up inside livin...

Q 04/05

Which infectious misfolded proteins, containing no DNA or RNA, cause mad cow disease in cattle?

A) Viroids

B) Phages

C) Plasmids

D) Prions

Answer · why

D) Prions

Prions spread by forcing normal copies of the same protein to misfold. Stanley Prusiner coined the name by blending protein and infection.

Q 05/05

Which structural protein, the most abundant in mammals, takes its name from the Greek word for glue?

A) Collagen

B) Elastin

C) Fibronectin

D) Laminin

Answer · why

A) Collagen

Collagen makes up 25% to 35% of the protein in a mammal's body. Doctors use it in artificial skin to help severe burns heal.