Saturday, January 18, 2014

IMPORTANT ROLES OF TRACE ELEMENT

Human being require some numbers of nutrients particularly vitamins and minerals for proper maintainance and development. Functions of minerals may not be explained to the fullest but trace elements have at least five roles in living organisms.
In close association with enzymes, some trace elements are integral parts of catalytic centers at which the reactions necessary for life occur.
Working in concert with a protein, and frequently with other organic coenzymes, trace elements are involved in attracting substrate molecules and converting them into specifi c end products.
Some trace elements donate or accept electrons in reactions of reduction or oxidation. In addition to the generation and utilization of metabolic energy, redox reactions frequently involve the chemical transformation of molecules.
One trace element, iron, is involved in binding, transporting and releasing oxygen in the body.
Some trace elements have structural roles; that is, imparting stability and three-dimensional structure to important biological molecules.
Some trace elements have regulatory roles. They control important biological processes through actions such as making hormones active, facilitating the binding of molecules to receptor sites on cell membranes, altering the structure or ionic nature of membranes to prevent or allow specifi c molecules to enter a cell, and inducing gene expression.

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