Chromatin

(To the tune of “Sunshine on my Shoulders” – Recording by David Simmons)

Side chains of the lysines bind to phosphates
Minus charges cling to plusses tight
Chromatin assembly is essential
Eukaryotic cells must get it right

Cells are tiny micro-scaled enclosures
With nuclei tucked deep in their insides
That’s the place amazingly enough that
Seven feet of DNA resides

H2a and H2b have lysines
That’s how they get charges don’t forget
Paired with H’s three and four they make up
A chromatin core’s octameric set

These get organized in higher orders
Changing with the cycles of the cell
Denser packing going through mitosis
At other times the structures simply swell

So because of all the hyperpacking
Nuclei can hold entire genomes
Thank the histones spooling DNA for
Physically downsizing chromosomes