Hi all!
I just wanted to shared with you a song that I wrote over the break. It’s called “The Building Blocks of Life” and it intends to break down (pun partially intended) the different levels of protein structure and how the four main organic elemens, C, H, O and N are able to create such a diversity of structures that are conducive to life as we know it! Below is the link (mp3 is too big a file to share otherwise), and here are the the lyrics if you wanted to follow along!! Apologies in advance for the poor recording – I don’t have any of my recording equipment with me at school..
https://soundcloud.com/audrey-amadea/the-building-blocks-of-life
The Building Blocks of Life
Let’s start out with some elements
C, H, O, and N
They differ in the number
of protons their core contains
Line ‘em up in a million ways
Like Legos upon the sand
Don’t need imagination
To admire your creation
X With four simple atoms you can see how life began!
Arrange these “letters” in such a way
To make what’s called a functional group
And these various “anagrams”
You’d be amazed at what they can do
A carboxylic acid and amino group
Just two examples of more:
One is acidic, one is basic
One giveths and one takeths
The protons in solution in a constant tug-of-war!
Amino acids have both of these
Both are linked to a central C
Amino acids are the building block
Of proteins that we need (to live)
Twenty kinds that are known to man
So that’s twenty different beads
If you string them all together
And vary up the order
You’ll make a polypeptide – what useful jewelry!
Let’s be clear for a moment
A polypeptide is not yet a protein
A protein must have structure and function
And all we’ve done is drawn up the blueprints
(primary structure, if you will)
We’ve got the order of amino acids
But that tell us nothing still….about
How the residue will interact
In its surrounding environment
Will it play nice with the other kids?
And with the water solvent!
Noncovalent interactions can certain atoms create
Van der waals, electrostatic, and the tendency to segregate
Due to hydrophobicity or lack thereof you see
All you need to keep in mind
is that like dissolve in like
And hydrogen bonding to add stability
Each amino has a backbone
That spells out N-C-C
Due to this special pattern
The backbone will fold accordingly
Alpha helix or beta sheet
Two very common forms
This folding is inherent
To the backbone that’s apparent
That’s why these secondary structures are very much the norm
Then we move up one level
Tertiary is where we sit
Due to side chains interactions
Twenty different sides we can pick!
All these side chains have properties
Like size and polarity
These quirks and small distinctions
make each “bead” quite unique and
that’s the explanation for the protein shapes we see!
One last thing before I go
And that’s to help you appreciate and know
How these subunits can come together in the end
To fraternize with other subunit friends
Multiple polypeptides can a single protein have
These peptides come together
To form a certain network
That’s the quaternary level and we’re almost at the end!
So this my friends is how proteins are conceived,
Atom by atom, piece by piece
The structural levels of a protein I confess
Simple and yet complex!