Teaching the chemical elements in biochemistry: Elemental biology and metallomics

Wolfgang Maret; Philip Blower

doi:10.1002/bmb.21614

Teaching the chemical elements in biochemistry: Elemental biology and metallomics

Wolfgang Maret^*, Philip Blower

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

261 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Biochemistry primarily focuses on the non-metal chemical elements carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus in the four groups of building blocks (sugars, lipids, amino acids, and nucleotides) and the corresponding macromolecules. However, at least 10 essential chemical elements of life are metals. This article discusses the consequences of such a bias, presents current knowledge that over 20 chemical elements are required for life, and makes a case for—and suggests benefits of—teaching elemental biology alongside molecular biology and biochemistry, and inorganic chemistry in addition to organic chemistry. A relatively new interdisciplinary field, metallomics, has the potential to be a platform for integration when added to glycomics, lipidomics, proteomics, and genomics. It would fill a major gap in contemporary education, be relevant for many areas of science, and facilitate the teaching of important principles of chemistry in the biological sciences, thus helping students to gain a broader understanding of life processes from the molecular to the systemic biology level.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	283-289
Number of pages	7
Journal	BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY EDUCATION
Volume	50
Issue number	3
Early online date	26 Feb 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/bmb.21614
Publication status	Published - 1 May 2022

Keywords

bioelements
biometals
chemical elements

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Teaching the chemical elements_MARET_Publishedonline26Feb2022_GOLD VoR (CC BY)Final published version, 794 KBLicence: CC BY

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title = "Teaching the chemical elements in biochemistry: Elemental biology and metallomics",

abstract = "Biochemistry primarily focuses on the non-metal chemical elements carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus in the four groups of building blocks (sugars, lipids, amino acids, and nucleotides) and the corresponding macromolecules. However, at least 10 essential chemical elements of life are metals. This article discusses the consequences of such a bias, presents current knowledge that over 20 chemical elements are required for life, and makes a case for—and suggests benefits of—teaching elemental biology alongside molecular biology and biochemistry, and inorganic chemistry in addition to organic chemistry. A relatively new interdisciplinary field, metallomics, has the potential to be a platform for integration when added to glycomics, lipidomics, proteomics, and genomics. It would fill a major gap in contemporary education, be relevant for many areas of science, and facilitate the teaching of important principles of chemistry in the biological sciences, thus helping students to gain a broader understanding of life processes from the molecular to the systemic biology level.",

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author = "Wolfgang Maret and Philip Blower",

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AU - Blower, Philip

N1 - Funding Information: We thank Professor Robert Hider for critical reading and discussions. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

PY - 2022/5/1

Y1 - 2022/5/1

N2 - Biochemistry primarily focuses on the non-metal chemical elements carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus in the four groups of building blocks (sugars, lipids, amino acids, and nucleotides) and the corresponding macromolecules. However, at least 10 essential chemical elements of life are metals. This article discusses the consequences of such a bias, presents current knowledge that over 20 chemical elements are required for life, and makes a case for—and suggests benefits of—teaching elemental biology alongside molecular biology and biochemistry, and inorganic chemistry in addition to organic chemistry. A relatively new interdisciplinary field, metallomics, has the potential to be a platform for integration when added to glycomics, lipidomics, proteomics, and genomics. It would fill a major gap in contemporary education, be relevant for many areas of science, and facilitate the teaching of important principles of chemistry in the biological sciences, thus helping students to gain a broader understanding of life processes from the molecular to the systemic biology level.

AB - Biochemistry primarily focuses on the non-metal chemical elements carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus in the four groups of building blocks (sugars, lipids, amino acids, and nucleotides) and the corresponding macromolecules. However, at least 10 essential chemical elements of life are metals. This article discusses the consequences of such a bias, presents current knowledge that over 20 chemical elements are required for life, and makes a case for—and suggests benefits of—teaching elemental biology alongside molecular biology and biochemistry, and inorganic chemistry in addition to organic chemistry. A relatively new interdisciplinary field, metallomics, has the potential to be a platform for integration when added to glycomics, lipidomics, proteomics, and genomics. It would fill a major gap in contemporary education, be relevant for many areas of science, and facilitate the teaching of important principles of chemistry in the biological sciences, thus helping students to gain a broader understanding of life processes from the molecular to the systemic biology level.

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Teaching the chemical elements in biochemistry: Elemental biology and metallomics

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