I wrote the following three songs for the BB 451/551 class I teach at Oregon State University. At end of the quarter, I sing the songs to the class as a study aid. The parts sung by the instructor and by the class are shown below. Try them out on your classes and let me know how they work for you. Copyright 1999 Kevin Ahern

The Battle Hymn of Biochemistry

 

To the tune of The Battle Hymn of the Republic

 

 

 

Instructor Sings

 

By now you know the story of the respiratory stew

Where the fatty acids get chopped up in units two by two

And electrons pass through coenzymes referred to here as Q

Electrons flow along

 

Class Sings

 

Glory to electron transport

Glory to electron transport

Glory to electron transport

Electrons flow along

 

 

Instructor Sings

 

Eee - lectron transport complexes are working dusk to dawn

Managing electron energy they just keep passing on

And for handling the energy they get to pump protons

As the gradient marches on

 

Class Sings

 

Glory to the proton gradient

Make the mitochondry - radiant

Glory to the proton gradient

The gradient marches on

 

 

Instructor Sings

 

If you need a lot of energy your cells have got a way

To break fatty acids down to yield some acetyl-CoA

Going on inside peroxisomes and mitochondri "ay"

Fatty acids oxidized

 

Chorus

 

Glory, glory oxidation

It's the heart of respiration

Learn it without consternation

Fatty acids oxidized

 

 

Instructor Sings

 

HMG-CoA reductase leads to bits of isoprene

That link up together in the cell to synthesize terpenes

Don't forget before cholesterol you've got to make squalene

As the lipids march along

 

Chorus

 

Glory, glory to the lipids

Glory, glory to the lipids

Glory, glory to the lipids

As the lipids march along

 

 

 

Instructor Sings

 

If a bee decides to sting you when you're sitting in a daze

You had better take some aspirin for PGH synthase

Otherwise arachidonate goes to cyclic path-a-ways

And you'll start to feel the pain

 

 

 

Chorus

 

Oh, don't make the prostaglandins

Causing pain with great abandon

No, don't make the prostaglandins

You are going to feel the pain

 

We All Need Just a Little ATP

To the Tune of Yellow Submarine

Instructor Sings

In the cells, inside of us, there's a ribose on adenine
Which is linked, to phosphate groups, and you know it as ATP

Class Sings

If we build up a lot of ATP, we've too much energy, metabolically
If we build up a lot of ATP, we've too much energy, metabolically

Instructor Sings

And the cellular decree, calls for storing up the energy
So we save, it chemically, building acids onto ACP

Class Sings

Making fat stores a lot of energy, creates NADP, and uses ATP
Making fat stores a lot of energy, creates NADP, and uses ATP

Instructor Sings

When we need, some energy, we burn fats in little cell machines
Acids all, get shuttled in, on the backs of little carnitines

Class Sings:

We break acids every hour today, in mitochnodri-ay, to acetyl-CoA
We break acids every hour today, in mitochnodri-ay, to acetyl-CoA

Instructor Sings

One more thing, about this tune, should be remembered by, all of you
Burning fat, converts a few, FADs to FADH2s

Class Sings:

NADH is a product too, that you can surely use, when NAD's reduced
NADH is a product too, that you can surely use, when NAD's reduced

From the Labs of Biochemistry

To the Tune of "From the Halls of Montezuma"

 

 

Everyone sings this song together.

 

From the fatty acids in our cells

To the lipids in our brains

We are made of biochemicals

Built in metabolic chains

 

Using glycolytic energy

In the form of ATP

We can synthesize most everything

With the help of Delta G

 

 

 

A cell will tend to pump out sodium

But potassium it imports

It accomplishes this magic with

ATPase antiports

 

Our bilayer lipid membranes

Protect the cells' insides

Partly made of sphingolipids

We know as gangliosides

 

 

 

When it comes to regulation

The little cell has got it made

It phosphorylates most everything

With its own kinase cascade

 

Stimulated by a hormone site

Metabolic yang and yin

It's turned on by epinephrine

And turned off by insulin

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