Question: How does your enzyme react to Silicon (Si) and Oxygen (O)? And what is it called?

Emily Sparkes answered on 19 Nov 2019:

My enzyme is called Silicatein (because it is a silica protein). Despite it being discovered 20 years ago, we’re still not 100% sure exactly how it works because it’s very insoluble. This means we haven’t been able to determine its structure. It is, however, very similar in its genetic makeup to another enzyme that is found in humans called Cathepsin L. We use this similarity to make estimates about how exactly silicatein reacts. What we do know, however, is that silicatein uses a chemical that is dissolved in seawater called silicic acid (H4O4Si) to build its exoskeleton. It does this by sticking the monomer silicic acid units together to form a long polymer chain that is known as biosilica. It was the first enzyme ever discovered to do this! I don’t know how much stuff on reactions you’ve studied yet but the kind of reaction that happens between silicon and oxygen is called nucleophilic substitution