Nonruminant Nutrition: Mineral-Mineral Interactions: Implications for Nutrition

Inorganic elements (metals, non-metals, transition elements, and electrolytes commonly called “minerals” in nutrition science) are critical to all life processes as enzyme cofactors, stabilizers of proteins, structural components of tissues, second messengers, regulators of acid-base balance, participants in redox reactions, and for the maintenance of cellular electrical potential. For this reason, the required mineral elements are essential for the optimal function of a broad array of physiological systems and dysregulation of their metabolism can influence, or be a marker of, disease processes. While traditional reductionist approaches have revealed many aspects of mineral metabolism and function, significant gaps still exist. For example, we don’t know all of the proteins that mediate mineral metabolism or whose function is altered by changes in mineral status. It is also clear that mineral-mineral interactions exist but we don’t fully understand how they influence the absorption, excretion, storage, and utilization of chemically similar elements. This presentation will explain how understanding the breadth of biological processes influenced by minerals, identifying the genes that control mineral metabolism, and revealing the importance of interactions between inorganic elements can be accomplished by using a new approach that examines the metabolism of minerals in toto, or as an “ionome”.