Iron chemistry at the service of life.
Iron is an essential element for almost all organisms on Earth. It is necessary for a number of crucial processes such as hemoglobin and myoglobin transport and storage of oxygen in mammals; electron transfer support in a variety of iron-sulfur protein or cytochrome reactions; and activation and catalysis of reactions of a wide range of substrate like alkanes, olefins, and alcohols. Living organisms adopted iron as the main metal to carry out all of these functions due to the rich coordination chemistry of its two main redox states, Fe2+and Fe3+, and because of its abundance in the Earth's crust and oceans. This paper presents an overview of the coordination chemistry of iron that makes it suitable for a large variety of functions within biological systems. Despite iron's chemical advantages, organisms were forced to manage with some drawbacks: Fe3+insolubility and the formation of toxic radicals, especially the hydroxyl radical. Iron chemistry within biology is an example of how organisms evolved by creating molecular machinery to overcome these difficulties and perform crucial processes with extraordinary elegance and efficiency. © 2017 IUBMB Life, 69(6):382-388, 2017.
Departamento de Química Inorgánica and Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad de Granada, Spain.
Manu
M
Sánchez
Departamento de Química Inorgánica and Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad de Granada, Spain.
Laura
L
Sabio
Departamento de Química Inorgánica and Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad de Granada, Spain.
Natividad
N
Gálvez
Departament de Química, Facultat de Ciències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès (Barcelona), Spain.
Mercè
0000-0002-2246-0994
M
Capdevila
Departamento de Química Inorgánica and Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad de Granada, Spain.
Jose M
0000-0002-1639-744X
JM
Dominguez-Vera
D001692:Biological Transport; D056831:Coordination Complexes / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D056890:Eukaryota / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D017665:Hydroxyl Radical / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D007501:Iron / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D007506:Iron-Sulfur Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D009211:Myoglobin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D010100:Oxygen / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D011387:Prokaryotic Cells / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism
D056831:Coordination Complexes; D006454:Hemoglobins; D007506:Iron-Sulfur Proteins; D009211:Myoglobin; D017665:Hydroxyl Radical; D007501:Iron; D010100:Oxygen
coordination chemistry; iron; iron-binding proteins; oxygen