Central Dogma Zen - Part 1
(To the tune of "Those Were the Days")
Copyright 2008 Indira Rajagopal
Once upon a time a cell decided
The time was ripe for it to split in two
Had to copy cellular instructions
For the daughter cell would need them too.
Bring in a helicase
Unzip the DNAs
To ease the stress a gyrase joins the fray
Strands must be held apart
SSBs do their part
And primase builds a primer RNA.
Sliding clamp comes in behind clamp loader
dNTPs floating all around
In the wings a replicase is waiting
For the chance to start another round.
Polymerase, my friend
Starts at the 3’ end
It puts a T across from every A
A G across from C
Perfect simplicity
The leading strand is made in just this way.
The lagging strand is made in little pieces
Okazaki fragments, you recall
Pol I fills the gaps that lie between them
Ligase comes in next and joins them all.
Blueprints can’t have mistakes
That’s why polymerase
Corrects its work
With exonuclease
Proofreading one by one
Till all its work is done
Hurray for D-N-A polymerase!
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