Biochalcogen Chemistry: The Biological Chemistry of Sulfur, Selenium, and Tellurium

Biochalcogen Chemistry: The Biological Chemistry of Sulfur, Selenium, and Tellurium highlights the biological uses of heavy chalcogens as a key area of focus in bioinorganic chemistry and a unifying theme for research in a wide variety of disciplines. Recent achievements in these multidisciplinary efforts are presented that discuss the subtle, yet important roles of biochalcogens in living systems as sulfur- and selenium-containing metabolic intermediates and products (Chapters 1 and 10) and in their oxidation when coordinated to metals (Chapters 3 and 4). Chemical and instrumental tools for detecting sulfur and selenium species and their functionalities are also discussed (Chapters 2 and 6), as are new directions in biochalcogen applications to redox scavenging, both in terms of synthesis (Chapters 7 and 8) and mechanistic modeling (Chapter 9). Tellurium, with no natural biological function, is represented together with sulfur and selenium as a phasing agent in nucleic acid crystallography and for other biological studies (Chapter 5).This book will serve as a useful collection of reviews and research results in this diverse field, encompassing research in bioinorganic chemistry, organic synthesis, computational approaches, and biochemistry, as an inspiration for researchers wishing to enter the variety of fields that encompass these multidisciplinary research efforts, and as a useful resource for undergraduate or graduate courses focusing on main group and transition element biochemistry. A wide audience will find this book a helpful resource for this rapidly expanding field.