Paris Persun

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LYRICS

Interphase is cell divisions longest part,

nuclear membranes intact as it starts,

The cells growing, cytoplasm flowing,

chromosomes get duplicated, DNA gets replicated

Chromosomes are spread out so they cant 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, (looks) 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 cells opposing sides,

And between them the fibers of the spindle wend and wind,

The spindles 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, theyve 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 "Im 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 theres a ring of micofilaments

that form at the equator and they cinch themselves in

Tighter, tighter, tighter, tighter til the cell is in two pieces,

Yeah in animals, thats cytokinesis

But its 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 its reproductive too!

Major image credits (complete image credits available upon request)

1. The video of cell division shown during the chorus is by John Daum and Gary Gorbsky, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.

2. The image of the mitotic spindle at metaphase and the image of anaphase is from wikispaces.psu.edu/display/23.... It is used by permission of the Department of Biology at Penn State University.