Hey Visitor!

PROTEIN SYNTHESIS 2000
As sung by an amino acid - based on "Disco 2000" by Pulp
I love this song.  Just so you know.

Twenty of us, all different from one another,
We need a huge macromolecular structure -
Messenger RNA (RNA) -
Transcribed from DNA -
'Cos they said you’d make a protein
(You were into the translation scene)
Oh, by condensation
Polymerisation

mRNA, everyone says
That with transfer RNAs
You can H-bond, base to base,
And peptidyl transferase
Will join those polypeptide chains…

And I said,
"Let’s all meet up in the cytoplasm,
We’ll become chains of peptides, fully grown!
Be there at the A-site that’s on the ribosome!"
By tRNA I’ll be carried,
Bind to the complementary triplet code -
With that anticodon, I’ll know where to go!

And so your first codon was GAC
The anticodon was CUG
And so that was leucine (with any base 3
Because of wobble and degeneracy),
You base-paired with every tRNA
That left its residue, and floated away,
And the peptide chain grew
‘Cos each amino acid knew

Exactly where it was placed
By the transfer RNAs
‘Cos you bonded, base to base,
And peptidyl transferase
Joined the polypeptide chain…

And I said,
"Let’s all meet up in the cytoplasm,
Won't it be strange - a peptide, fully grown?! -
Be there with the right tRNA triplet code!"
I never knew what code you’d carry,
I would be floating round here on my own,
With my tRNA, by the ribosome…

(spoken/instrumental part)

mRNA, everyone says
That with transfer RNAs
You can H-bond, base to base,
And peptidyl transferase
Will join those polypeptide chains…

And I said,
"Let’s all meet up in the cytoplasm,
We’ll become chains of peptides, fully grown -
Be there at the A-site that’s on the ribosome!"
By tRNA I’ll be carried,
Bind to the complementary triplet code -
With that anticodon, I’ll know where to go!

mRNA, you’re single-stranded,
We’re all amphoteric and left-handed,
Our protein chain has disbanded…
Ooo-oo-oo-oo-oo-ooh!

mRNA, you’re single-stranded,
We’re all amphoteric and left-handed,
Our protein chain has disbanded…
Ooo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-ooh!!