Sound of Glucose

(To the tune of “A Few of My Favorite Things”) / Recording by Tim Karplus

Aldehyde sugars are always aldoses
If there’s a ketone we call them ketoses
Some will form structures in circular rings
Saccharides do some incredible things

Onto a glucose we add a ‘P’ to it
ATP energy ought to renew it
Quick rearranging creates F6P
Without requiring input energy

At a high rate
Add a phosphate
With PFK
F1,6BP is made up this way
So we can run and play

Aldolase breaks it and then it releases
DHAP and a few G3Pieces
These both turn in to 1,3 BPG
Adding electrons onto NAD

Phosphate plus ADP makes ATP
While giving cells what they need – en-er-gy
Making triphosphate’s a situa-shun
Of substrate level phosphoryla-shun

3-B-P-G
2-B-P-G
Lose a water

PEP gets a high energy state
Just to make py-ru-vate

So all the glucose gets broken and bent
If there’s no oxygen cells must ferment
Pyruvate / lactate our cells hit the wall
Some lucky yeast get to make ethanol

This is the end of your glucose’s song
Unless you goof up and get it all wrong
Break it, don’t make it to yield ATP
You’ll save your cells from fu-til-i-ty