Hemoglobin's Moving Around
(To the tune of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town")
Copyright © 2006 Kevin Ahern

Tim Karplus' recording HERE

Oh isn't it great
What proteins can do
Especially ones that bind to O₂
Hemoglobin's moving around

Inside of the lungs
It picks up the bait
And changes itself from T to R state
Hemoglobin's moving around

The proto-porphyrin system
Its iron makes such a scene
Arising when an O₂ binds
Pulling up on histidine

The binding occurs
Cooperatively
Thanks to changes qua-ter-nar-y
Hemoglobin's moving around

It exits the lungs
Engorged with O₂
In search of a working body tissue
Hemoglobin's moving around

The proton concentration
Is high and has a role
Between the alpha betas
It finds imidazole

To empty their loads
The globins decree
"We need to bind 2,3BPG"
Hemoglobin's moving around

The stage is thus set
For grabbing a few
Cellular dumps of CO₂
Hemoglobin's moving around

And then inside the lungs it
Discovers ox-y-gen
And dumps the CO₂ off
To start all o'er again

So see how this works
You better expect
To have to describe the Bohr effect
Hemoglobin's moving around

Complete list of Metabolic Melodies HERE

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