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The human body needs iron for oxygen transport. Oxygen (O 2) is required for the functioning and survival of nearly all cell types. Oxygen is transported from the lungs to the rest of the body bound to the heme group of hemoglobin in red blood cells. In muscles cells, iron binds oxygen to myoglobin, which regulates its release.
During the Great Oxidation Event, 2.3-2.5 billion years ago, dissolved iron was oxidized by oxygen produced by cyanobacteria to form iron oxides. The iron oxides were denser than water and fell to the ocean floor forming banded iron formations (BIF). [19] Over time, rising oxygen levels removed increasing amounts of iron from the ocean.
Iron can also be oxidized by marine microbes under conditions that are high in iron and low in oxygen. [53] Iron can enter marine systems through adjoining rivers and directly from the atmosphere. Once iron enters the ocean, it can be distributed throughout the water column through ocean mixing and through recycling on the cellular level. [54]
The anoxygenic phototrophic iron oxidation was the first anaerobic metabolism to be described within the iron anaerobic oxidation metabolism. The photoferrotrophic bacteria use Fe 2+ as electron donor and the energy from light to assimilate CO 2 into biomass through the Calvin Benson-Bassam cycle (or rTCA cycle) in a neutrophilic environment (pH 5.5-7.2), producing Fe 3+ oxides as a waste ...
In some fish, capillary blood flows in the opposite direction to the water, causing countercurrent exchange. The muscles on the sides of the pharynx push the oxygen-depleted water out the gill openings. In bony fish, the pumping of oxygen-poor water is aided by a bone that surrounds the gills called the operculum. [6]
After being carried in blood to a body tissue in need of oxygen, O 2 is handed off from the heme group to monooxygenase, an enzyme that also has an active site with an atom of iron. [9] Monooxygenase uses oxygen for many oxidation reactions in the body. Oxygen that is suspended in the blood plasma equalizes into the tissue according to Henry's law.
Parts-per-million cube of relative abundance by mass of elements in an average adult human body down to 1 ppm. About 99% of the mass of the human body is made up of six elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. Only about 0.85% is composed of another five elements: potassium, sulfur, sodium, chlorine, and magnesium ...
The body of an adult human contains about 4 grams (0.005% body weight) of iron, mostly in hemoglobin and myoglobin. These two proteins play essential roles in oxygen transport by blood and oxygen storage in muscles. To maintain the necessary levels, human iron metabolism requires a minimum of iron in the diet.