Main description:

MILS-14 provides a most up-to-date view of the exciting biogeochemistry of gases in our environment as driven mostly by microorganisms. These employ a machinery of sophisticated metalloenzymes, where especially transition metals (such as Fe, Ni, Cu, Mo, W) play a fundamental role, that is, in the activation, transformation and syntheses of gases like dihydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, acetylene and those of the biological nitrogen and sulfur cycles. The Metal-Driven Biogeochemistry of Gaseous Compounds in the Environment is a vibrant research area based mainly on structural and microbial biology, inorganic biological chemistry and environmental biochemistry. All this is covered in an authoritative manner in 11 stimulating chapters, written by 26 internationally recognized experts and supported by nearly 1200 references, informative tables and about 100 illustrations (two thirds in color). MILS-14 also provides excellent information for teaching.

Peter M. H. Kroneck is a bioinorganic chemist who is exploring the role of transition metals in biology, with a focus on functional and structural aspects of microbial iron, copper and molybdenum enzymes and their impact on the biogeochemical cycles of nitrogen and sulfur.

Martha E. Sosa Torres is an inorganic chemist, with special interests in magnetic properties of newly synthesized transition metal complexes and their reactivity towards molecular oxygen, applying kinetic, electrochemical and spectroscopic techniques.

Contents:

Preface.- The Early Earth Atmosphere and Early Life Catalysts.- Living on Acetylene. A Primordial Energy Source.- Carbon Monoxide. Toxic Gas and Fuel for Anaerobes and Aerobes: Carbon Monoxide Dehydrogenases.- Investigations of the Efficient Electrocatalytic Interconversions of Carbon Dioxide and Carbon Monoxide by Nickel-Containing Carbon Monoxide Dehydrogenases.- Understanding and Harnessing Hydrogenases. Biological Dihydrogen Catalysts.- Biochemistry of Methyl-Coenzyme M Reductase: The Nickel Metalloenzyme that Catalyzes the Final Step in Synthesis and the First Step in Anaerobic Oxidation of the Greenhouse Gas Methane.- Cleaving the N,N Triple Bond: The Transformation of Dinitrogen to Ammonia by Nitrogenases.- No Laughing Matter: The Unmaking of the Greenhouse Gas Dinitrogen Monoxide by Nitrous Oxide Reductase.- The Production of Ammonia by Multiheme Cytochromes c.- Hydrogen Sulfide: A Toxic Gas Produced by Dissimilatory Sulfate Reduction and Consumed by Microbial Oxidation.- Transformations of Dimethylsulfide.- Index.