Essentially deadly: living with toxic elements

A ll transition metals are highly toxic to life at low levels, but at the same time some, such as manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc and molybdenum, are essential micronutrients needed to catalyse key enzymatic reactions. To survive, living organisms have had to evolve mechanisms that either remove such metals from their bodies or detoxify and make use of them metabolically. Many of these mechanisms have been well studied in bacteria, but much less is known about how plants and animals deal with toxic compounds. ...................................................... “Broberg’s research also highlights a point common to many toxic compounds [. . .] which is that their metabolic processing can generate dangerous intermediate by-products” ......................................................