Nitrogen cycle molybdenum

Iron-molybdenum-sulfur clusters will be considered in Section 62.1.14, which deals with aspects of the nitrogen cycle. 

One of the enzymes given in Table 23 is nitrogenase, which is responsible for the fixation of dinitrogen to give ammonia. Molybdenum probably serves as the binding site for N2, and is present in the iron-molybdenum cofactor, which is a molybdenum-iron sulfide cluster. Nitrogenase will be considered in Section 63.1.14, which deals with the nitrogen cycle. 

Molybdenum is essential for the biological utilization of nitrogen from the environmental nitrogen cycle. 

There were 37 distinct enzymes that contain molybdenum or tungsten known by the end of 1997. The enzymes are diverse in function, broadly distributed, and include oxidases, reductases, dehydrogenases, a transhydroxylase, and a hydratase. The Mo enzymes are found in eubacteria, archae, protista, fungi, plants, and animals (including humans) and are essential for respiration and carbon and nitrogen assimilation. Several of the enzymatic substrates and products are key components in the nitrogen, sulfur, selenium, carbon, and arsenic cycles and have major biological and environmental impact. 

There are >40 distinct molybdenum enzymes that occur in all classes of living systems and are especially important in the biochemical cycles of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur (24b). The majority of the molybdenum enzymes, with notable exceptions including the nitrogenases (25-28) and a 2-hydroxyglutaryl-CoA dehydratase (10), catalyze a conversion of the type [Eq. 1], that is, the net effect of the catalysis corresponds to the transfer of an oxygen atom to or from the substrate. 

In addition to being important in industry, transition metal ions play a vital role in living organisms. For example, complexes of iron provide for the transport and storage of oxygen, molybdenum and iron compounds are catalysts in nitrogen fixation, zinc is found in more than 150 biomolecules in humans, copper and iron play a crucial role in the respiratory cycle, and cobalt is found in essential biomolecules such as vitamin Bi2-... 

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