Today's molecule is a cartoon drawing of an image that depicts something very important. Your task is to explain what the image shows. Then you have to explain why this is important when it comes to describing the function of something called a "balancer." It's a short step from there to this weeks Nobel Laureates. They used balancers in their work.
You need to describe what you see in the cartoon as accurately as possible and name the species. Then identify the Nobel Laureates, taking care to name only those ones who might have used balancers in their prize winnning work.
The first one 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. You know who you are.
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 Laureate(s). Note that I'm not going to repeat Nobel Laureate(s) so you might want to check the list of previous Sandwalk postings by clicking on the link in the theme box.
Correct responses will be posted tomorrow. I reserve the right to select multiple winners if several people get it right.
UPDATE: This weeks winner is Bill Chaney from Nebraska. He recognized that the "molecule" depicted a chromosomal inversion in a Drosophila chromosome. Such inversions are a characteristic of balancer chromosomes. Balancers are used in maintaining fly stocks, especially ones carrying homozygous lethal mutations.
The Nobel Laureates must be Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard and Eric Wieschaus
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