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by Always Ready - COAT of courage on January 25th, 2010
Iron is essential to nearly all known organisms. In cells, iron is generally stored in the centre of metalloproteins, because "free" iron (which binds non-specifically to many cellular components) can catalyse production of toxic free radicals. Iron deficiency can lead to iron deficiency anemia.
In animals, plants, and fungi, iron is often the metal ion incorporated into the heme complex. Heme is an essential component of cytochrome proteins, which mediate redox reactions, and of oxygen carrier proteins such as hemoglobin, myoglobin, and leghemoglobin. Inorganic iron also contributes to redox reactions in the iron-sulfur clusters of many enzymes, such as nitrogenase (involved in the synthesis of ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen) and hydrogenase. Non-heme iron proteins include the enzymes methane monooxygenase (oxidizes methane to methanol), ribonucleotide reductase (reduces ribose to deoxyribose; DNA biosynthesis), hemerythrins (oxygen transport and fixation in marine invertebrates) and purple acid phosphatase (hydrolysis of phosphate esters).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron#Dietary_sources
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