Vanadium in Plants, Fungi and Bacteria: Structural Aspects and Functions

ENRIQUE JOSE BARAN

Advances in Plant Physiology

Scientific Publishers

Lugar: Jodhpur; Año: 2007; p. 357 - 372

This review is devoted to the presence and possible functions of different vanadium complexes found in plants, fungi and bacteris, and the following aspects are discussed: a) The uptake of vanadium and ist possible essentiallity for plants and fungi; b) The accumulation of vanadium by a special class of fungi (Amanitae) and the presence of amavadin, the V-containing complex, which structural, chemical and biochemical characteristics are thoroughly analyzed; c) The structural and functional characteristics of the vanadium complex present in V-dependent haloperoxidases from algae, fungi and lichens, including the analysis of mechanistic aspects of the halogenation process; d) The presence of vanadium and its possible origin in petroleums, coals and related systems;  e) The presence of vanadium in tunicates (sea squirts);  f) Bacterial systems containing vanadium complexes, specially V-dependent nitrogenases from N2-fixing bacteria, and some other recently discovered V-dependent bacterial enzymes.