Right, this is research for a novel.
So for those who weren't scared off by the title, I just want to let you know that we're getting very deep into biochemistry, as well as biochemistry that is hypothetical (as in, biochemistry that is technically possible but doesn't actually exist on Earth).
I've got enough knowledge on biochemistry to understand how damn near everything in the human body works. However, for one of my books, I'm experimenting with a species that has a different biochemistry, and I chose boron. It's the one with the least complexity (given the other options are arsenic and silicon), but I wanna make sure I got this right, because Wikipedia can only do so much.
Basically, whereas the body constructs chains of carbon (mainly through glycogen production) and requires oxygen for cellular respiration (ATP production, especially). In the case of Boron, that element would construct those chains instead, but still require different elements for respiration.
Anyone got enough knowledge on this subject to confirm/fix my hypothesis?