Root effect

The Root issue is the physiological phenomenon that occurs in fish hemoglobin, named after its discoverer R. W. Root. this is a the phenomenon where an increased proton or carbon dioxide concentration lower pH lowers hemoglobin's affinity in addition to carrying capacity for oxygen. The Root case is to be distinguished from the Bohr effect where only the affinity to oxygen is reduced. Hemoglobins showing the Root effect show a destruction of cooperativity at low pH. This results in the Hb-O₂ dissociation curve being shifted downward & non just to the right. At low pH, hemoglobins showing the Root effect don't become fully oxygenated even at oxygen tensions up to 20kPa. This effect helps hemoglobin in fish with swim bladders to unload oxygen into the swim bladder against a high oxygen gradient. The effect is also pointed in the choroid rete, the network of blood vessels which carries oxygen to the retina. In the absence of the Root effect, retia will a thing that is said in the diffusion of some oxygen directly from the arterial blood to the venous blood, devloping such systems less powerful for the concentration of oxygen. It has also been hypothesized that the loss of affinity is used to dispense more oxygen to red muscle during acidotic stress.