Today is Tuesday so it must be time for Monday's Molecule. (Oops! I was traveling yesterday and didn't get around to posting. It doesn't matter since today is a much more important day anyway—it's my birthday.)Today's molecule is essential for all life as we know it. You need to identify the molecule and give its correct common name as well as the formal IUPAC name. Pay attention to the correct common name—some trivial names just won't do.
There's an indirect connection between today's molecule and a Nobel Prize. The prize I have in mind was not awarded for working out the structure of the molecule. We've already covered that prize. Instead, the prize was for learning something very important about the pathway for synthesis of the molecule. Something genetic.
The first person to correctly identify the molecule and name the Nobel Laureate(s) wins a free lunch at the Faculty Club. Previous winners are ineligible for one month from the time they first collected the prize. There are three ineligible candidates for this week's reward.
THEME:
Nobel Laureates
Send your guess to Sandwalk (sandwalk (at) bioinfo.med.utoronto.ca) and I'll pick the first email message that correctly identifies the molecule and names the Nobel Laureates. Note that I'm not going to repeat Nobel Laureate(s) so you might want to check the list of previous Sandwalk postings.
Correct responses will be posted tomorrow. I may select multiple winners if several people get it right.
UPDATE: The molecule is pyridoxine (3- hydroxy-4,5 -bis (hydroxymethyl) -2-methylpyridine) also known as vitamin B6. (Pyridoxal and pyridoxamine, along with pyridoxine, make up the members of the B6 family.)
The Nobel Laureates are George Beadle and Edward Tatum who discovered that mutations in Neurospora affected single enzymes in a pathway. Mutants that were unable to grow on vitamin B6 were among the first mutants they isolated in the 1940's.
The winner this week is Bill Chaney from the University of Nebraska.
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