Potassium biological importance

The mechanism of action of U ions remains to be fully elucidated. Oiemi-cally, lithium is the lightest of the alkaU metals, which include such biologically important elements as sodium and potassium. Apart from interference with transmembrane cation fluxes (via ion channels and pumps), a lithium effect of major significance appears to be membrane depletion of phosphatidylinositol bisphosphates, the principal lipid substrate used by various receptors in transmembrane signalling (p. 66). 

Just as there are cation channels, there are also trans-membrane channels involved in the transport of biologically important anions such as Cl-. The crystal structure of the CIC chloride channel from Salmonella typhimurium was reported in 2002.3 Along with the determination of the Streptomyces lividans potassium channel structure, this work won a share of the 2003 Nobel prize in chemistry for Roderick MacKinnon (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New York, USA). Chloride channels catalyse the flow of chloride across cell membranes and play a significant role in functions such as... 

The number of elements that are known to be biologically important comprises a relatively small fraction of the 109 known elements. Natural abundance limits the availability of the elements for such use. Molybdenum (Z = 42) is the heaviest metal, and iodine (Z = 53) is the heaviest nonmetal of known biological importance. The metals of importance in enzymes are principally those of the first transition series, and the other elements of importance are relatively light sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, oxygen, chlorine, and, of course, hydrogen. 

With regard to plant nutrition, sulfur is -after nitrogen, phosphoms and potassium -the fourth major plant nutrient. In plants, sulfur is used to form the amino acids methionine, cystine and cysteine, all of which are important for the formation of proteins, as well as many other biologically important, natural sulfur-containing com-... 

This compound has not one, but two chiral centers. Both the inner carbon atoms are attached to four different groups. Tartaric acid is found in nature as the free acid, as a salt of calcium or potassium, in fruit extracts, and especially as crystals deposited during wine fermentation. The naturally occurring form is optically active in solution. Tartaric acid is typical many biologically important molecules are chiral. In Section 25.9 we will examine the amino acids, all of which (except for glycine) are chiral and found in nature as just one of the enantiomers. 

Cellular metal ion transport is biologically important because our muscular and nervous systems are regulated by charged species. Cells use membrane channels to extract potassium ions selectively from environments containing both K+ and Na+. Because the K+ ion is /argerthan the Na+ ion, this process cannot be accomplished by simply restricting the channel diameter. Dr. Roderick MacKinnon showed that potassium selectivity arises from a preferential interaction between the potassium cation and the atoms of the protein amino acids composing the channel walls. 

Since their NMR characteristics are favorable, their chemical and biological importance—since one no longer believes, as Humphry Davy did, that volcanism originates in water seeping into an earth core made of sodium and potassium metal ( )—maintains these nuclei in the forefront. NMR imaging is a prime example ... 

Metal ions play an important role in several of these oxidative reactions as well as in biological dioxygen metabolism. As an example, copper(II) acetate and hydrogen peroxide have been used to produce a stable oxidizing agent, hydroperoxy copper(II) compound. The same oxidation system is also obtained from copper(II) nitrate and hydrogen peroxide (Eq. 1) [103] but requires the neutralization of ensuing nitric acid by potassium bicarbonate to maintain a pH 5. 

Clinical chemistry, particularly the determination of the biologically relevant electrolytes in physiological fluids, remains the key area of ISEs application [15], as billions of routine measurements with ISEs are performed each year all over the world [16], The concentration ranges for the most important physiological ions detectable in blood fluids with polymeric ISEs are shown in Table 4.1. Sensors for pH and for ionized calcium, potassium and sodium are approved by the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry (IFCC) and implemented into commercially available clinical analyzers [17], Moreover, magnesium, lithium, and chloride ions are also widely detected by corresponding ISEs in blood liquids, urine, hemodialysis solutions, and elsewhere. Sensors for the determination of physiologically relevant polyions (heparin and protamine), dissolved carbon dioxide, phosphates, and other blood analytes, intensively studied over the years, are on their way to replace less reliable and/or awkward analytical procedures for blood analysis (see below). 

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