Question

Why would a plant develop a characteristic such as accumulating gold, uranium, and other heavy metals? Explain.

Answer 1

You have to think that this does not happen naturally, for this to pass the soil where the plant grows must be contaminated with such heavy metals.

Now think, the molecules (enzymes) that organisms use for the synthesis of their components as well as their physiological processes do not have eyes only "feel" the shape of the molecules so that these heavy metals that are divalent are very similar in their form to the metals that are necessary for the plant (the iron). The plants to capture the iron use molecules called "siderophore" (specifically fytosiderophore) which capture these heavy metals unintentionally.

Now these metals are incorporated into the plant's metabolic pool and the enzymes believe that it is iron, which is why they incorporate it into the biomolecules of the plant (in this case chlorophyll). The same happens to mammals and they suffer from poisoning with heavy metals and their hemoglobin instead of incorporating iron they incorporate the heavy metals that they captured.

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