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The Chemistry of Lanthanides in Biology: Recent Discoveries, Emerging Principles, and Technological Applications

[Image: see text] The essential biological role of rare earth elements lay hidden until the discovery in 2011 that lanthanides are specifically incorporated into a bacterial methanol dehydrogenase. Only recently has this observation gone from a curiosity to a major research area, with the appreciati...

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Autor principal: Cotruvo, Joseph A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Chemical Society 2019
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6764073/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31572776
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acscentsci.9b00642
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author Cotruvo, Joseph A.
author_facet Cotruvo, Joseph A.
author_sort Cotruvo, Joseph A.
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description [Image: see text] The essential biological role of rare earth elements lay hidden until the discovery in 2011 that lanthanides are specifically incorporated into a bacterial methanol dehydrogenase. Only recently has this observation gone from a curiosity to a major research area, with the appreciation for the widespread nature of lanthanide-utilizing organisms in the environment and the discovery of other lanthanide-binding proteins and systems for selective uptake. While seemingly exotic at first glance, biological utilization of lanthanides is very logical from a chemical perspective. The early lanthanides (La, Ce, Pr, Nd) primarily used by biology are abundant in the environment, perform similar chemistry to other biologically useful metals and do so more efficiently due to higher Lewis acidity, and possess sufficiently distinct coordination chemistry to allow for selective uptake, trafficking, and incorporation into enzymes. Indeed, recent advances in the field illustrate clear analogies with the biological coordination chemistry of other metals, particularly Ca(II) and Fe(III), but with unique twists—including cooperative metal binding to magnify the effects of small ionic radius differences—enabling selectivity. This Outlook summarizes the recent developments in this young but rapidly expanding field and looks forward to potential future discoveries, emphasizing continuity with principles of bioinorganic chemistry established by studies of other metals. We also highlight how a more thorough understanding of the central chemical question—selective lanthanide recognition in biology—may impact the challenging problems of sensing, capture, recycling, and separations of rare earths.
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spelling pubmed-67640732019-09-30 The Chemistry of Lanthanides in Biology: Recent Discoveries, Emerging Principles, and Technological Applications Cotruvo, Joseph A. ACS Cent Sci [Image: see text] The essential biological role of rare earth elements lay hidden until the discovery in 2011 that lanthanides are specifically incorporated into a bacterial methanol dehydrogenase. Only recently has this observation gone from a curiosity to a major research area, with the appreciation for the widespread nature of lanthanide-utilizing organisms in the environment and the discovery of other lanthanide-binding proteins and systems for selective uptake. While seemingly exotic at first glance, biological utilization of lanthanides is very logical from a chemical perspective. The early lanthanides (La, Ce, Pr, Nd) primarily used by biology are abundant in the environment, perform similar chemistry to other biologically useful metals and do so more efficiently due to higher Lewis acidity, and possess sufficiently distinct coordination chemistry to allow for selective uptake, trafficking, and incorporation into enzymes. Indeed, recent advances in the field illustrate clear analogies with the biological coordination chemistry of other metals, particularly Ca(II) and Fe(III), but with unique twists—including cooperative metal binding to magnify the effects of small ionic radius differences—enabling selectivity. This Outlook summarizes the recent developments in this young but rapidly expanding field and looks forward to potential future discoveries, emphasizing continuity with principles of bioinorganic chemistry established by studies of other metals. We also highlight how a more thorough understanding of the central chemical question—selective lanthanide recognition in biology—may impact the challenging problems of sensing, capture, recycling, and separations of rare earths. American Chemical Society 2019-08-22 2019-09-25 /pmc/articles/PMC6764073/ /pubmed/31572776 http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acscentsci.9b00642 Text en Copyright © 2019 American Chemical Society This is an open access article published under an ACS AuthorChoice License (http://pubs.acs.org/page/policy/authorchoice_termsofuse.html) , which permits copying and redistribution of the article or any adaptations for non-commercial purposes.
spellingShingle Cotruvo, Joseph A.
The Chemistry of Lanthanides in Biology: Recent Discoveries, Emerging Principles, and Technological Applications
title The Chemistry of Lanthanides in Biology: Recent Discoveries, Emerging Principles, and Technological Applications
title_full The Chemistry of Lanthanides in Biology: Recent Discoveries, Emerging Principles, and Technological Applications
title_fullStr The Chemistry of Lanthanides in Biology: Recent Discoveries, Emerging Principles, and Technological Applications
title_full_unstemmed The Chemistry of Lanthanides in Biology: Recent Discoveries, Emerging Principles, and Technological Applications
title_short The Chemistry of Lanthanides in Biology: Recent Discoveries, Emerging Principles, and Technological Applications
title_sort chemistry of lanthanides in biology: recent discoveries, emerging principles, and technological applications
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6764073/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31572776
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acscentsci.9b00642
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