KOMPAS.com – Cycle nitrogen is also one of the natural cycles that occur on earth. Why dour nitrogen important to life on earth? Here is the explanation!
Reported from Encyclopedia Britannica, Earth’s atmosphere is made up of 78 percent nitrogen gas, making it an abundant reservoir. The abundance of nitrogen is not without reason, but rather nitrogen played a key role in the formation of life on earth.
Nitrogen is the basic building block DNA
Reported from Science Learning Hubthe reason why the nitrogen cycle is important in life is that natural nitrogen in the basic form of nitrogen is the basic building block of nucleic acids.
Nucleic acids are important substituents that make up life on earth. Nucleic acid is the basic material for making the genetic material of living things, namely DNA and RNA.
Read also: DNA: Definition, Structure, and its Arrangement
Reported from National Human Genome Research InstituteDNA contains the biological instructions that organisms need to develop, survive, and reproduce.
DNA made of nitrogen is the blueprint for making living organisms and their physiological functions. DNA provides instructions for the manufacture of various proteins that make up the tissues and organs of living things.
This means that the body parts of living things such as stems, roots, leaves, arms, legs, heads, and hair, and various organs of the body would not exist without nitrogen.
In addition, DNA also provides instructions for making proteins that support the body’s physiological functions.
Read also: DNA: Structure and Function
For example, hormones and enzymes also maintain the body’s biological systems such as the nervous system, metabolism, immunity, balance, heart and brain work.
This makes the nitrogen cycle important to maintain the amount of nitrogen on earth. Thus, living things from generation to generation can continue to get nitrogen for the body and develop and survive.
Nitrogen is needed by producers to make food
Plants and autotrophic microorganisms are producers that sustain food webs in life. Producers need nitrogen to convert inorganic substances into organic substances which are a source of food for living things.
Reported from Earth.comProducers need nitrogen to make chlorophyll (a photosynthetic pigment) and also carry out photosynthesis (turning sunlight into food or an energy source).
Without nitrogen, producers lose their photosynthetic ability, cannot make food, and die. This causes living things to lose their food source.
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