Listen my classmates and you shall hear
Of the amino acids assembled here
Long before any man walked the earth
They were all here, in laughter and mirth
Twenty in all, with their own special names
Reveling in their own chemistry games
Some overlaps exist, you see
All have COOH- and +NH3
There are some differences, that's no doubt
Do you know what they're all about?
First we have glycine, baby of the bunch
She's real small, but packs a big punch
See that girl with the plump pink lips?
Her collagen injection costs a lot in tips.
Then there's alanine, one methyl tall
Hydrophobic and shy to all
But you'll be sur-prised -- if I say
She's abundant in protein, 'round this way.
Valine, water-shy, has two feet
CH3 and CH3, isn't that neat?
If we just take a small peep,
Valine's just catching up on sleep.
Leucine, big brother to the three
The center -- that's where he'll be
Sheltered away, from the fray
Of nasty H2O coming this way.
Look! Here comes isoleucine, down the road
Identity confusion, he plainly showed.
You ask me how, and I reply,
"He's an isomer o' leucine, that is why."
Serine and threonine, hand in hand
They're brothers -- you understand?
Both having a hydroxyl, off the end
That's -OH, my dear good friend.
Alcohol amino acids, so they're named
Serine's drunk driving can't be tamed
And her big brother's very acclaimed
For being the OH gangster that's quite famed.
Messiah cysteine, savior of all
Although small -- he stands quite tall
Disulfide bridges, constructs does he
Structure stabilization, that's the key.
Methionine, codon AUG
A true whistle-blower, you'll agree
You start everything off with AUG
If not for methionine, then where is me?
Now everyone is cute and all
But proline's sobbing, against the wall
His R group fuses with alpha N
Making him an oddball, there and then.
Passionate aspartate, can't you see
Is partyin' it up -- he's on a spree!
Charged side chain -- that he has
Bindin' to cations, and all that jazz.
Now asparagus you probably know
You get funny pee after eating, yo!
(that's my bad -- sorry 'bout the hygiene)
Ya'll blame it on asparagine.
Here's someone, packing lots of heat
Metabolic processes, there you'll meet
Glutamic acid, running around
Keeping the body safe and sound.
See the buff guy on nighttime news?
Those big guns will give a bruise
What's the secret behind the man?
From glutamine there it all began.
Still remember Jurassic Park?
Those big dinos can really bark
Ever wonder why they don't escape?
Without lysine, they're all out of shape.
Looking for love in your life?
Trying to get away from all that strife?
It's been rumored that arginine take
You'll never get a new heartache.
Histidine, serine, and aspartate form
A catalytic triad, it's quite the storm
Peptide bonds, that's what they break
To histidine it's just a piece of cake.
Ever see the packets of NutraSweet?
So few calories, but sweet as a beet
A few of us though -- they must abstain
Too much phenylalanine causes strain.
From phenylalanine comes tyrosine
In poppy plants we get sweet morphine
Makin' hormones, tyrosine's the pro
Keeping you happy till you glow.
Finally we have tryptophan, at the end
He has TWO rings, you comprehend?
Because he's the fattest of the bunch
I guess he really likes his lunch.
I guess here is where the long story ends
Now that you've met all my special friends
Are you curious why I know them all?
(hey! this world is quite so small!)
So here the epic story goes you see
I stayed up one night -- studyin' till three
A biochem test -- the horror! the horror!
I'm not Dora, the brave explorer!
But then glycine leapt off the page and said
"Why a simple chem test you so much dread?"
Then she looked up at me again and smiled
"Actually we are quite untamed and wild.
Would you like to go and look at our world?"
So suddenly I was instantly swirled -
Into a nice place where I met them all.
Happily smiling, I heard a far call
"It is nearly nine, are you good to go?"
"Oh that is right, I have a chem test whoa!"
I walked into the room panting inside
When I saw the test I nearly died
Then I spotted glycine, grinning at me
Dancing with her friends who I clearly see.
I picked up my pen and started to write
I was quite determined to pick up a fight
When I finished then I closed my eyes
I have not even said my last goodbyes!
But I'll see them again -- that's no doubt
They're what proteins are all about!