Bioinorganic chemistry

Bioinorganic Chemistry

Bioinorganic chemistry is the study of the structure and biological functions of inorganic biological substances such as metals carbohydrates proteins and lipids forms about 90% of the solid matter in the body of humans.

Bioinorganic chemistry can be defined as a processs that examines the role of metals in biology. Bioinorganic chemistry includes the study of both natural phenomena such as the behavior of metalloproteins as well as artificially introduced metals, including those that are non-essential, in medicine and toxicology.

Many biological processes such as respiration depend upon molecules that fall within the realm of inorganic chemistry. The discipline also includes the study of inorganic models or mimics that imitate the behaviour of metalloproteins.

Elements of the body are divided into five major groups:

Group1: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen. These are the examples of macro molecules such as carbohydrates, protein and lipids.

Group2: nutritionally important minerals element. The daily requirement of these elements is greater than 100mg and their deficiency can prove fatal. They include magnesium and sulphur, they are also called macro elements.

Group3: trace elements which are essential, the requirement are less than 100mg per day. Deficiency can lead to serious disorder. They include chromium, cobalt, copper, iodine, ion, manganese, molybdenum.

Group4: these are additional trace elements which may be possible essential. The exact role is not known, examples are nickel, silicon, uranium, cadmium.

Group5: these are not essential elements and may be toxic. They have no known function in the body and enter the body through polluted air, water, and soil or food substances like cyanide, mercury, arsenic.

Transition metals

The transition metals are usually present as trace elements in organisms, with zinc and iron being most abundant.
These metals are used in some proteins as cofactors and are essential for the activity of enzymes such as catalase and oxygen-carrier proteins such as hemoglobin. These cofactors are bound tightly to a specific protein; although enzyme cofactors can be modified during catalysis, cofactors always return to their original state after catalysis has taken place.

The metal micronutrients are taken up into organisms by specific transporters and bound to storage proteins such as ferritin or metallothionein when not being used.Cobalt is essential for the functioning of vitamin B.

Incorporation of nitrogen

Through nitrogen- atmospheric nitrogen incoporched into the atmosphere.
Proteins are possible only because bio systems have evolved to release in nitrogen from the stable nitrogen gas state and insert the nitrogen into biomolecules. This Is called nitrogen fixation which is the process of converting atmospheric nitrogen gas into ammonia.

Nitrogen fixation is a general term used in the process by which stable triple bonds that secure atmospheric nitrogen are broken down and nitrogen atoms are incorporated into nitrogen compounds such as ammonia and nitrate.
Biological fixation of nitrogen is responsible for the half of the total removal of atmospheric nitrogen, the rest is accomplished by industry [production of NH3 using a catalyst and by lightening].

Nitrogen is combined with oxygen to form NO and NO2 which reacts with H2O to form HNO3 which dissolves with rain and can be used to form nitrides and nitrate by plant.

Biological nitrogen fixation is carried out by the Nitrogenase complex which consists of two portions:

1. A reductase which provides electron with high reducing power and a nitrogenase
2. A nitrogenase which uses these electrons to reduce nitrogen to ammonia.

The transfer of electrons from the reductase to the nitrogenase protein as coupled to the hydrolyses of ATP by the reductase. Although the reduction of Nitrogen to Ammonia is only a six electron process. The reductase is imperfect and hydrogen is also formed, therefore, two additional electrons are also required. The 8th high potential electrons come from reduced ferredoxin that is produced either in chloroplast by the action of photosystem.

Incorporation of Sulphur in biological system

Sulphur is an essential element for growth and physiological functioning of plants. Plants take up sulphate in their roots and reduce it to sulphide, they form the amino acids cysteine and methionine, sulphur, lipids and other.

Animal obtain sulphur from cysteine and methionine from the portion they consume, whereas cysteine sand methionine are highly significant in the structure conformation and functions of protein. Sulphur is the third most abundant mineral element in the body.

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