The elements of life and medicines.

ABSTRACT: Which elements are essential for human life? Here we make an element-by-element journey through the periodic table and attempt to assess whether elements are essential or not, and if they are, whether there is a relevant code for them in the human genome. There are many difficulties such as the human biochemistry of several so-called essential elements is not well understood, and it is not clear how we should classify elements that are involved in the destruction of invading microorganisms, or elements which are essential for microorganisms with which we live in symbiosis. In general, genes do not code for the elements themselves, but for specific chemical species, i.e. for the element, its oxidation state, type and number of coordinated ligands, and the coordination geometry. Today, the b

SUBMITTER: Chellan P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4342972 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature