#MyFaveElement: Molybdenum (Nigel Mouncey)

Hi, I’m Nigel Mouncey, director of the Joint Genome Institute, and I’m here today to tell you about my favorite element: molybdenum. Molybdenum is a transition metal. It’s element 42 and that makes it the most meaningful element in the periodic table. As a biologist, molybdenum is very important to me not only for its roles in helping us break down urea and xanthine, but also as a key cofactor in nitrogenase, the enzyme that fixes nitrogen. My love affair of molybdenum really began, though, with my PhD, where I studied the uptake and homeostasis of molybdenum in a bacteria that fixes nitrogen. I had the opportunity to use radioactive molybdenum, which really helped me conduct kinetic studies of molybdenum uptake and how molybdenum is stored in cells.

Molybdenum though then followed me to my postdoc in Texas, where I studied the expression of another molybdenum enzyme, DMSO reductase. Even in industry I couldn’t escape from molybdenum, where I worked on nitrate reductase, another enzyme that’s involved in the ability of organisms to respire in anaerobic conditions. I will just leave you with a quote from Bertram Russell: “Molybdenum’s of metals best, it’s good for high and low. It cures diseases of the chest and helps our muscles grow.” Thanks very much.

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Source: DOE Joint Genome Institute