Living organisms trace metals

Copper is an essential trace metal for all living beings. However, although copper is indispensable for many physiological functions of human organism, the presence of excess amount of copper in the body may be toxic. One possible source of copper in human body that is scarcely investigated is dental materials. 

Organically bound matter (OM). Heavy metals/trace elements may be bound in living organisms, detritus, and organic matter of the soil. The organically bound trace elements or heavy metals are affected by the production and decomposition of organic matter. 

Iron is an essential trace metal nutrient required by practically all living organisms for a wide variety of fundamental cell functions ranging from oxygen metabolism and electron transfer processes to DNA and RNA synthesis . ... 

Study of the role played by living organisms in trace metal control - A considerable number of laboratory-based studies have been done on the response of aquatic organisms to trace element perturbations, mainly in relation to toxicity. However, studies utilising organisms relevant to environmental systems and conducted under realistic environmental conditions are urgently needed. Mechanisms used by organisms to control the external chemical medium are mostly unknown. 

It is quite possible, however, that many cases of the supposedly harmful action of distilled water on living organisms are in reality due to minute traces of foreign metals, such as copper derived from the still in which the water was prepared. 

A number of the transition metals are essential trace elements for living organisms, so that one medical application of transition metal compounds is in the treatment of deficiency diseases. Particular examples are provided by preparations containing iron to treat anaemia and the use of dietary supplements containing cobalt in the form of vitamin B 2, shown as its cyanide derivative in 1.5. The reverse of this type of treatment involves the removal of excess metal ions from the body using com-... 

Today, metals are scavenged from water by extremely sophisticated biochemical processes (Morel and Price, 2003). Thus, seawater can have very low ambient levels of metal ions. Early Archean seawater would likely have been much richer in trace metals. But given that early organisms presumably had very unsophisticated processes for capturing metals, even in seawater rich in metal it would have been difficult to access the metal. Perhaps the earliest distribution of organisms was very restricted, with few cells living away from locations such as volcanoes that had readily accessible metals. Only the evolution of effective metal-gaining siderophores would have allowed the spread of life. There is thus reason to believe that, even if the last common ancestor was not hyperthermophile but lived... 

Characterize the biogeochemical role of zinc in the biosphere. Discuss why this trace metal is considered as the most physiologically important for living organisms. 

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