Abstract
Boron is an essential element for plants (Lovatt, 1985) and embryological development in fish (Rowe and Eckert, 1999) and frogs (Fort et al., 1999) does not proceed normally in the absence of extracellular boron. There is evidence that higher animals (Hunt and Idso, 1999; Armstrong et al., 2000) and humans (Hunt et al., 1997; Nielsen et al., 1992; Travers et al., 1990) require physiological amounts of boron to support normal biological functions. Despite the progress made in studies of boron essentiality for both plants and animals, the biochemical mechanisms responsible for the beneficial physiologic effects of boron across the phylogenetic spectrum are poorly understood. However, the unique nature of boron biochemistry suggests specific lines of investigation. This review summarises some of the progress made in understanding the essential roles of boron at the molecular level.
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Hunt, C.D. (2002). Boron-Binding-Biomolecules: a Key to Understanding the Beneficial Physiologic Effects of Dietary Boron from Prokaryotes to Humans. In: Goldbach, H.E., Brown, P.H., Rerkasem, B., Thellier, M., Wimmer, M.A., Bell, R.W. (eds) Boron in Plant and Animal Nutrition. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0607-2_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0607-2_3
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