This contest is an attempt to promote scientific knowledge among community in a fun and interesting way with the help of molecules.
Some people like to travel around the world and tell others stories about what happens outside of our organisms/cells in other countries.
And with “Identify the molecule” contest you can try to travel inside our own organism/cells and cells of the organisms around us.
Important
In order to get TMN, you’ll need to have NEO-wallet and provide me your public NEO-address.
If you don’t have it yet, don’t worry, I published a post on how/where to get it (O3 wallet).
Note that NEO-addresses provided by exchanges will not work in this case (+ it's safer NOT to keep your funds on exchanges). It's highly recommended to get O3 wallet.
For more information about this contest and its rules (especially if you're new to it) read
"Identify the molecule" contest. Upgrade (the league, additional bonuses and more)
and
If there’re no winners on any stage, the bonuses will be distributed equally among all users who provided any guesses for molecules.
All participants with guesses for molecules (not just the winners) are going to be rewarded with 20 STEM + 100 CCC + 100 PAL.
Riddle
It's enough to provide just the name of the family today's riddle molecule belongs to.
The molecule is the main enzyme involved in entering of CO2 into the biosphere. It's usually active during the day.
It can be found in autotrophic organisms (from bacteria and archaea to algae and higher plants).
Both carbon dioxide and molecular oxygen can be substrates for the enzyme along with ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate.
It is the most abundant protein on the Earth with low catalytic efficiency.
When the oxygen is the substrate, photorespiration happens and the photosynthetic capacity of many plants gets reduced.
This is the reason why some plants developed alternative pathways of CO2 fixation (like CAM).
(Surface representation. The molecule consists of 2 types of sub-units (8 small and 8 large) which form a hexadecameric protein structure. It requires magnesium ions (Mg2+; shown in white) for its activity (carboxylation/oxidation). Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate is highlighted with hotpink (8 molecules). The image was created by me with the help of PyMol - open source tool for molecular visualization/exploration. PDB-file was obtained from PDB)
(Cartoon representation. The molecule consists of 2 types of sub-units (8 small and 8 large) which form a hexadecameric protein structure. It requires magnesium ions (Mg2+; shown in white) for its activity (carboxylation/oxidation). Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate is highlighted with hotpink (8 molecules). The image was created by me with the help of PyMol - open source tool for molecular visualization/exploration. PDB-file was obtained from PDB)
(Surface representation. The molecule consists of 2 types of sub-units (8 small and 8 large) which form a hexadecameric protein structure. It requires magnesium ions (Mg2+; shown in white) for its activity (carboxylation/oxidation). Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate is highlighted with hotpink (8 molecules). The image was created by me with the help of PyMol - open source tool for molecular visualization/exploration. PDB-file was obtained from PDB)
"Edited"
The number of letters in the molecule's name goes below:
Rules
This contest lasts for 6 days.
Leave your guess (1 guess only (not 2 or 3+)) in the comments section of the post.
Don’t edit your comment/Don't delete or add new comments with the answers and don’t provide any evidence that your answer is correct.
The first user with correct answer is the winner.
Some of the clues have already been provided in the post.
Additional clues will be given Wednesday (20:00 ± 15 minutes UTC) (I’ll update this post).
The reason is that some people might need less information to make conclusions that the others.
Additional clues will be added at the end of the "Riddle" section before the "Rules" section with "Edited" label.
The winner will be announced on Friday, September 4, 2020, 20:00 ± 15 minutes UTC in the comments section of the next post. Plus I’ll publish a detailed review of the riddle after a while.
I’ll transfer the tokens (STEM + Hive + TMN + CCC + PAL) (if the winner provides me his/her NEO-address) to the winner on that day and add the transaction ID in the comments section.
I’m planning to run this contest every week.
Next time (September 5, 2020, 20:00 ± 15 minutes UTC) there will be a Year's stage of this league.
References
I’ll add all the references for this post later, because most of them contain the name of the molecule.
That would be a spoiler.
I’ll add them after a while.
Important
This contest is the work in progress.
A lot can be changed in the future.
Any recommendations/suggestions are very welcome.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments section.
All images (without the license specified) are used under the doctrine known in USA as "Fair Use" (similar doctrines are used in other countries). For more information visit the US Gov website