Heavy metals such as cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), chromium (Cr) and platinum (Pt) are a major environmental and occupational hazard. Unfortunately, these non-essential elements are toxic at very low doses and non-biodegradable with a very long biological half-life. Thus, exposure to heavy metals is potentially harmful. Because of its ability to reabsorb and accumulate divalent metals,...

For bacterial pathogens whose sole environmental reservoir is the human host, the acquisition of essential nutrients, particularly transition metals, is a critical aspect of survival due to tight sequestration and limitation strategies deployed to curtail pathogen outgrowth. As such, these bacteria have developed diverse, specialized acquisition mechanisms to obtain these metals from the niches...

Heavy metals i.e. Copper (Cu), Zinc (Zn), Manganese (Mn), Iron (Fe), Cadmium (Cd), Nickel (Ni), Mercury (Hg) and Arsenic (As) were analyzed in 35 samples of the fish muscle, from East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW). The concentration of heavy metals was in order of, Fe > Zn > Cu > Mn > Ni > As > Hg > Cd. The essential metals, such as iron, zinc, copper and manganese were in higher concentrations and, t...

In recent years, the organometallic and coordination chemistry of the alkali and alkaline earth metals has experienced tremendous progress to tackle the needs of today’s society. Enhanced ecological awareness and global availability favor research on the chemistry of the essential s-block metals. Nowadays, the s-block metals are conquering new chemical fields based on sophisticated theoretical ...

*Correspondence: Wan-Xi Yang, The Sperm Laboratory, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, 866 Yu Hang Tang Road, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, China e-mail: [email protected] The documents on Metallothioneins (MTs) in aquatic creatures, especially focusing on their function as biomarkers in environmental monitoring programmes, are vast and increasing. There are, however, few papers to s...

Of the known elements, nearly 80% are either metals or metalloids. The highly reactive nature of most metals result in their forming complexes with other compounds such oxygen, sulfide and chloride. Although this reactivity is the primary means by which they are toxic, many metals, in trace amounts, are vital to normal physiological processes; examples include iron in oxygen transport, manganes...

The toxic metals appear to use the transport pathways that exist for biologically essential metals. In this regard interactions between the toxic and essential metals are possible. This report summarizes recent findings on the transport of cadmium in rat hepatocytes and renal cortical epithelial cells in the presence or absence of certain essential metals. The transport of cadmium in hepatocyte...

Iron, copper and zinc are essential metals for cell metabolism. Plants have evolved different schemes to efficiently mobilize low-solubility nutrients such as metals from their environment and to transport them between organs. In this review we highlight the divergences and convergences of the iron, copper and zinc uptake, transport and homoeostatic pathways.