Case No. 118 · the exotic forty · have you seen this molecule?

Molybdenum storage protein

a soil bacterium’s molybdenum vault

File sealed

The detectives are still writing this one up. The poster and the facts are below; the film and the interrogation room open soon.

Booking photographs

Molybdenum storage protein, front view, against a height chart in nanometers — FRONT

Molybdenum storage protein, side view — SIDE · PDB 4F6T

The suspect, from its real atomic coordinates. Drag to turn it. Height chart in nanometers, ruled every 0.5 nm. Mugshot: its core cut away to show the molybdenum inside (black).

Rap sheet

Answers to: Molybdenum storage protein.
Height: 11 nm, standing on edge.
Weight: 290 zeptograms, empty.
Build: An (αβ)₃ cage. No door.
Holdings: Six Mo₈, three Mo₆, one Mo₃ (in black).
Suspected: Fires molybdate through its wall with ATP. A methionine steps aside.
Hours: Should fill up in under ten seconds. Takes fifteen minutes.
Weakness: Above pH 6.8, hands it all back.
Last seen: In a soil bacterium, Azotobacter vinelandii.

120

molybdenum atoms locked inside each one, give or take.
You’ve never seen one.

CASE FILE: Kowalewski, B. et al. (2012) Nature’s Polyoxometalate Chemistry: X-ray Structure of the Mo Storage Protein Loaded with Discrete Polynuclear Mo–O Clusters. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 134, 9768–9774.

The poster on the street

The wanted poster for Molybdenum storage protein

This is the photocopied wanted poster for Molybdenum storage protein, No. 118 of the exotic forty. They were made for noticeboards around Boston, Cambridge and the rest of the east coast.

Found one? Scan its QR code with your phone. If you're a signed-in player, the sighting goes on your record with +1 XP.

Not a player yet? Join the Epic Quest: the real role-playing game of Molecular Reality, a nanopore lab, with the CEO as gamemaster.