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Mitosis Rap Lyrics
Interphase is cell division’s longest part,
Nuclear membrane’s intact as it starts,
The cell’s growing, cytoplasm flowing,
chromosomes get duplicated, DNA gets replicated
Chromosomes are spread out so they can’t be seen distinctly
But note the nucleolus, the ribosome factory
Outside the nucleus are two centrosomes,
They later make a spindle which will pull apart the chromosomes.
Prophase follows, the chromosomes condense,
Each is made of two sister chromatids, like an “X”
Each sister is a clone, the closest of kin,
And a centromere connects them like siamese twins,
The nucleolus disappears it melts away,
as the cell takes a ribosome production holiday,
the centrosomes separate, start spindle formation
for separating chromatids and cell elongation.
CHORUS
Mitosis, chromosomal ride
Inter-, pro-, meta-, ana-, telophase, divide
Eukaryotes go from one cell to two,
Mitosis, how cells renew.
In late prophase (prometaphase),
The nuclear membrane disintegrates,
The centrosomes migrate to the cell’s opposing sides,
And between them the fibers of the spindle wend and wind,
The spindle’s made of microtubule fibers which attach
to chromosomes at kinetochores, a protein patch
that serves like a handle that the fibers can grasp,
When they pull apart the chromosomes, splitting them in half,
The spindle moves the chromosomes with nudges so fine,
Into linear formation on the 50-yard line
A location equatorial defining metaphase,
where the chromosomes are lined up on that middle place
CHORUS
The spindle fibers pull on the kinetochores,
A cellular molecular mitotic tug of war,
The centromere snaps, sisters get separated,
Now these chromatids are chromosomes, they’ve been upgraded
This snapping separation defines anaphase
The “A” for “apartness”, for moving different ways,
Kinetochore spindle fibers separate the sisters
See ‘em waving goodbye, calling out “I’m gonna miss ya,”
And the other spindle fibers push and grapple like felons
Makes the cell elliptical like a watermelon,
In telophase membranes form ‘round the chromosomes
Which spread out as the nucleoli come on home
CHORUS
In animal cells, there’s a ring of microfilaments
that form at the equator and they cinch themselves in
Tighter, tighter, tighter, tighter ‘til the cell is in two pieces,
Yeah in animals, that’s cytokinesis
But it’s different in plants in them the cell divides
By building a new cell wall from the inside
As the Golgi sends vesicles with cellulosic goo,
Which makes a plate, then a wall, divides the cell in two
And instead of one mother cell we now have daughters two
Identical twins, kind of old but kind of new,
From your single-celled beginning, this is how you grew
And for single-celled eukaryotes it’s reproductive too!
CHORUS (repeat and fade)
This Post Has 14 Comments
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Too cool.
Nathan
I’m a frog Dr who’s come to secondary teaching later in life- loving your raps, as are the kids. Even my trickiest classes leave my lessons singing- your Virus rap is particularly popular. Keep ’em coming. Looking at your quizzes now and wondering about translating the most apt for my courses- we’re a Welsh Secondary Comp though and although I’m getting away with your English language raps, I’d be pushing it to use English Lang quizzes!! Brilliant stuff though. Huge thanks.
Wow…translation into welsh! That would really be something! What’s a frogDr?
Mr. W
me and my classmates are obsessed with this song. great idea, really helps
Can’t wait to hear what you think of Protein Synthesis, my personal favorite!
Mr. W
woooooooooooooooooooo……..luv it.easy to understand.
Ahhh Mr. W you are the bomb.com
Keep up the cool. …
I’m gonna pass mitosis with flying colours 🙂
thanks, Rhoda. You’re making my day! Please let your friends and teacher know about my site.
Mr. W
Mr. W !!! I Love it! Dont ever stop please!!
Greetings from Carolina! I’m bored to tears at work so I
decided to check out your website on my iphone during lunch break.
I really like the info you present here and can’t wait
to take a look when I get home. I’m shocked at how quick your blog loaded on my cell phone ..
I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyhow,
good site!
Thanks for all your helpful quizzes and raps, I’m in BIO Summer School, I need all the help I can get!!
Thanks!
Thanks for your comment, Lisa!
Good luck in summer school. Please spread the word about sciencemusicvideos, and please consider buying my songs or donating to my channel!
Mr. W
Okay so my teacher literally plays this song twice a day every. Single. Day. and I have it memorized so I’m going to definitely pass this test!
Hi Lilli,
If you want to assure passing, check out my cell division tutorials. Let me know what you think…and share them with your class.
Enjoy!
Mr. W