The Brillant Dance of the Starvation Response

Another dorky song that only a microbiologist could love. This one is about the amazing regulation of the starvation response in E. coli during sugar starvation. Some of the details may be skipped through, but the core concept is there.

This is dedicated to undergraduate Microbial Physiology, instructed by Jeffery Lawrence.



The Brillant Dance of the Starvation Response (To the tune of Dashboard Confessional's "Brillant Dance")
Lyrics:
So this our
Painful realization
That glucose is gone
And there's no PTS sugars at all
No, there's no PTS sugars at all

So we build up E2A-Phosphate
Which goes to bind cya
Which creates cyclic-AMP
Which activates crp

And the lacY channel comes unbound
So if there's lactose to be found
It diffuses in and is eaten by the cell

So this is strange
Our lactose pools have been used up
And now they are no more
And we have no carbon source at all
No we have no carbon source at all

So our charged tRNA pools start to fall
And RelA has to make the call
And synthesize pppGpp

And oxidation becomes a task
And protein synthesis is too much to ask
And you're measuring the minutes with a protein MCP

Well this is incredible
Starvation's inevitable
Yes we have become more stringent

Well we'd like to think we were invincible yeah
Well weren't we all once
Until we got starved for our sugars

Where are our sugars?
I need some lactose
Or even a Twinkie

I wish that I could become a forespore...