Biomineralization

Biomineralization is defined as: the process by which living organisms produce minerals which can harden or stiffen existing tissues. Biominerals perform a variety of roles in organisms, with the most important being support, defence and feeding. With knowing this the metal that I chose was zinc. Zinc is consider to be a common element in nucleic-acid polymerases and transcription factors, where it's role is consider to be structural instead of catalytic and can help enhance the stereoselctivity of the polymerization of nucletiodes under reaction conditions. With this in mind, a group of nucleic-acid binding proteins with a repeated sequence containing the amino acids cysteine and histidine, were shown to bind as many as eleven zinc atoms which were necessary for protein function. Zinc plays numerous aspects in the role of cellular metabolism,  the immune function, protein synthesis, wound healing, DNA synthesis, and cell disvion. This metal is essential for animals and plants since the metal ion can uptake into the roots of plants which helps in the flow of the soil solution. Zinc is used in humans to build molecules of DNA, and directs the reproduction. Furthermore, the metal is used in galvanizing (process of laying down other a thin layer of zinc on the surface of a second metal). The reason for this is because zinc does not corrode as easily as iron so therefore it can protect iron and other metals from corrosion. An important use of zinc is with alloys. An alloy is made by melting and mixing two or more metals. The mixture has different properties from those of the individual metal; so two of the most common alloys are brass and bronze. With brass being an alloy of zinc and copper and bronze being an alloy of copper and tin but containing a small trace of zinc. The alloys of zinc are used in a variety of things such as: automobile parts, roofing, gutters, batteries, and building materials.
Pictures are shown below:

zinc found on plants

crystals of zinc