The bioelements are the different chemical elements that you need a species to be able to develop normally. Chemical elements, meanwhile, are types of matter that are formed by atoms of the same class.
Also known as biogenic elements , bioelements are found in all living organisms. In each living being it is possible to find about seventy elements, although a large part of the mass of the cells It consists of just four chemical elements: nitrogen , he hydrogen , he carbon and the oxygen .
The bioelements allow to form biomolecules : the molecules that constitute living organisms. According to the function they perform in the formation of biomolecules, bioelements can be classified as primary or secondary.
The primary bioelements they are the four elements named lines above (nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon and oxygen) plus the sulfur and the match . These bioelements are essential for the development of protein , the carbohydrates , the nucleic acids and the lipids . Let's see more information about them below:
* nitrogen : it appears especially as an amino group (a functional group that derives from ammonia or one of its derivatives) in proteins, since it is found in all amino acids . We can also find it in nucleic acids, specifically in their nitrogen bases. The plants are responsible for incorporating almost all of the nitrogen in the form of nitrate ion ;
* hydrogen : It is one of the essential components of organic molecules (in their carbon skeletons), in addition to their already known presence in the water molecule, without which life would not be possible as we know it. Hydrogen has the ability to form bonds with any bioelement;
* carbon : can form chains extensive carbon-carbon (the so-called macromolecules) by means of single or double type links, in addition to cyclic structures. The immense variety of molecules of which it participates is due to its ability to incorporate many diverse radicals. Another of its characteristics is the stability of its links, something that differentiates it from silicon;
* sulfur : it is mainly in the form of a sulfhydryl radical (a compound whose functional group is made up of two atoms, one of sulfur and one of hydrogen), as part of several proteins, in which it creates disulfide bonds necessary for the structures Tertiary and quaternary are stable. On the other hand, we can find this primary bioelement in coenzyme A, fundamental for many universal metabolic pathways, among which the Krebs cycle ;
* match : the type of group in which we can usually find it is phosphate, that is, an ion that is composed of a phosphorus atom in the center and four oxygen around it, forming a tetrahedron. This bioelement is usually part of the nucleotides. The links that form have a great energetic richness, and this considerably facilitates their exchange.
The secondary bioelements instead they are in a proportion reduced in living organisms. It is possible to differentiate between indispensable secondary bioelements and the variable secondary bioelements .
Among the indispensable secondary bioelements, which are found in all living beings, we can name the calcium , he potassium , he sodium and the magnesium . Variable secondary bioelements, however, only appear in certain organisms . In this group are the copper , he bromine and the fluorine , for example.
According to their abundance, finally, bioelements can be differentiated in major bioelements (present at a level greater than 0.1% of the total body weight), trace bioelements (its proportion is between 0.1% and 0.0001% of the weight ) and ultra-cup bioelements (its presence is less than 0.0001% of the organic weight).
