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Br
Bromine
79.904
Essential: humans
Beneficial: plants, some microbes
Bromine
Major functions in cells: (1)
- Cofactor for enzyme in animal tissue development
- Can substitute for Cl in some plants
- Secondary metabolite
Environmental and health impacts:
- Disinfectant and pollutant
Response to limitation:
- Cl can substitute as cofactor, but with significantly decreased efficacy (2)
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(1) Bromine: Trace Element in Animals
Bromine (Br) is likely an essential element only for animals. Br was recently found to be a required cofactor for peroxidasin-catalyzed formation of sulfilimine crosslinks, which are crucial for tissue development in animals (McCall et al., 2014). This is the first known requirement for Br in animals.
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Br is not required for plants. However, certain plants in the seas of Japan were found to concentrate Br (Saenko et al., 1978). Interestingly, there is also some evidence to suggest that in plants, Br is capable of partially substituting for Cl under low Cl-conditions (Ozanne et al., 1957). Since Cl is an essential micronutrient for plants, this provides another example of a non-essential element reducing an organism’s requirement for an essential element through elemental substitution.
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Similarly to Cl, Br is also not required for the survival of microbes. However, Br is present in the secondary metabolites of some bacteria and marine algae and may thus be classified as beneficial to some microbial organisms (Cabrita et al., 2010).