Welcome, I'm so happy you came by
For a lesson 'bout the essence of b-i-o-l-o-g-y DNA's the topic; it's so fantastic,
We're talking 'bout Deoxyribonucleic acid
If you've ever wondered 'bout development in elephants Or bumble bees, coffee trees, well DNA's the recipe
In its home in a chromosome in the nucleus
DNA drives the bus, genetically controlling us
In ferns and worms infectious germs, mommy's egg and daddy's sperm
DNA's the information linking up the generations
It's the code of life so listen up well,
'Cause DNA's the molecule in charge of every cell!
DNA! Fantastic
Deoxyribonucleic Acid
We're talking 'bout deoxyribonucleic acid DNA! Fantastic
The shape is key -- probably well known to you Double helix, twisted ladder, or a double corkscrew Imagine a twisted length of tape with
Deoxyribose sugars on the edges with phosphates
Sugar phosphate sugar phosphate making up the sides of the Ladder with nitrogenous bases on the inside
With the bases like the rungs and together with
Deoxyribose sugar and a phosphate make a nucleotide
Deoxyribonucleotides are the monomers
Link them up together for the DNA polymer
Point three four nanometers marks the space between One nucleotide and the next one's place
And for the helix to make one turn takes
10 bases in a row as you can discern
Since space 'tween nucleotides is point three four, One turn takes nanometers three point four
So stylish! So slick!
First described in '53 by Watson and Crick and Don't forget Franklin she took that famous X-Ray pic But she died so she never got her Nobel Prize.
The nitrogenous bases comes in one of four varieties, Known by the letters A, T, C and G
A is for Adenine, Thymine's got the "T"
C it stands for Cytosine and Guanine's got the "G"
A and G with two nitrogen rings are purines
C and T with one ring are pyrimidines
C only bonds with G, A only with T
Because like puzzle pieces they're complementary
They fit together, snuggled up like hand and glove, Like enzymes and substrates, like people in love A-T, C-G, matched up like lock and key
Forming hydrogen bonds, either two or three.
Hydrogen bonds, you know they aren't very strong, But they're enough to hold DNA together all day long The way the bases fit together couldn't be sweeter, They give DNA a width of two nanometers
DNA's double stranded, looks pretty swell
The strands' orientation is anti parallel
With one standing up, the other on its head
It's how they fit together, Crick and Watson said!
Sugars and phosphates make the backbone, the structure But the sequence of the bases is where you find instructions For development of bodies and the cytoplasmic symphony, That constitutes life's miracle in goats and golden algae,
Your sequence of bases is unique, a special batch, Unless you're an identical twin it's nowhere matched, And you can bet, that if you're not Jango Fett
That you've got no clone, no one like you's been known!
Our bases comprise our individuality,
You might have "A" where I might have a "G" Explaining why I'm bald and you got all that hair These differences can show up anywhere,
The protein hemoglobin, now listen up well, It carries oxygen in your red blood cells, Hemoglobin's made of four protein pieces, A trait widely shared among animal species.
Hundreds of bases spell one hemoglobin piece, Hundreds of A's, G's, Ts and Cs
The gene starts CAC-GTG-CAC
Then TGA-GGA-CTC-CTC
The key is these bases are information,
For hemoglobin's function and conformation, Hundreds of bases, in a predetermined order, A single change brings on a major disorder,
Change T to A in one single spot
This little point mutation might not seem like a lot, Thymine to Adenine might not seem that big to ya' But baby that's the cause of sickle cell anemia