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The Lighter Side
They Call the Stuff Urea (To the Tune of ‘‘They Call the Wind Mariah’’)&s
Received for publication, June 11, 2010
Kevin Ahern†
From the Department of Biochemistry, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331
Get ATPs, bicarbonate,Ammonia catalyzingTo make carba-mo-yl phosphateAnd then start the synthesizing
When joined up with an ornithineIn THE mi-TOE-chon-DREE-aIt turns into a citrullineWhen cycling to urea
Urea!Urea!
They call the stuff urea!
On exit to the cytosolThere’s bonding aspartat-icThe argininosuccinateIs produced in this schematic
Bid farewell to a fumarateAmino panaceaArises when the arginineGets lysed to form urea
Urea!Urea!You’ve just made some urea!
The body handles many thingsRequiring its attentionLike balancing aminos forUremia prevention
So if there’s excess nitrogenIt is a good ideaTo rid yourself of surplus byProducing some urea
Urea!Urea!Go out and take a pee, yeah!
Urea!Urea!Have yourself a pee, yeah!
Copyright � 2010 Kevin Ahern&s Additional supporting information (an .mp3 file of this
song) may be found in the online version of this article.† To whom correspondence should be addressed. ALS
2011, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA. Tel.: 541-737-2305.E-mail: [email protected].
This paper is available on line at http://www.bambed.org DOI 10.1002/bmb20449247
Q 2010 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY EDUCATION
Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 247, 2011
