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AMightyOak43 t1_irbr8uf wrote

Reply to comment by SadandFurious in What happens when a bruise heals? by DwagonFyre

It's like leaves in the Fall, with chlorophyll being equivalent to hemoglobin and the anthocyanins and xanthophylls and carotenoids take over and cause different colors.

Edit: oh, I should have added: According to day length, the chlorophyl breaks down, leaving the other chemicals to shine their colors.

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SadandFurious t1_irbrt3v wrote

take a look at the chemical structure of chlorophyll vs heme and it’s an even better analogy

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Seicair t1_irc8kcs wrote

Pyrrolidines everywhere!

For those who want a visual reference, here are example types of two sub regions of chlorophyll and hemoglobin that show the similarities.

Chlorophyll

Hemoglobin

Plants use magnesium and mammals use iron. Other animals use copper and have blue blood.

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whtthfff t1_ird8xsr wrote

Wow, never knew this. Do we know why mammals use iron? Like is it somehow better for what mammals do, or is/was there just a lot of it available?

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Seicair t1_irddgod wrote

I don’t know the evolutionary reasons behind it. All vertebrates with the exception of one Antarctic icefish use hemoglobin or heme to transport oxygen, but a lot of invertebrates use hemocyanin (copper based, blue blood), and there are multiple different iron containing compounds that are in use among invertebrates.

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Pyrrolic_Victory t1_ircfu87 wrote

Tetrapyrolles are the foundation of life on this planet and allow us to eat sunlight!

From Cyanobacteria (and later plants) who evolved in order to use them to create chlorophyll and capture photons and use that energy to turn CO2 into reduced carbon chains which form sugar/fat and O2, to mammalian cells (among others) who use them to create hemoglobin(from heme) which then carries the O2 to the mitochondria where we oxidise these reduced carbon chains back to CO2 and energy in the form of ATP.

The breakdown products of both heme and chlorophyll are anti inflammatory/anti oxidative in nature, and have roles to play in aging too.

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