Glycolysis! (Mr. W's Music Video)

SUMMARY: Glycolysis is the first step in cellular respiration. This rap lecture teaches all you need to know about glycolysis at the AP Biology or Freshman Biology level.

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LYRICS
Glycolysis is a series of reactions,
Enzymatic actions, energy transactions,
Takes glucose, a molecule so sugary,
Breaks it down for NADH and ATP

It's an anaerobic cytoplasmic pathway that amazes
Organized easily into three phases,
Investment, cleavage, and energy harvest,
Tell me later which one you like best.

Investment: activation energy's supplied,
Cleavage: our six carbon sugar divides
Harvest: we get our energy yield,
So beautiful, so intricate keep your eyes peeled

CHORUS
Glycolysis!
Come on sugar, come on sugar, for the breakdown. For the breakdown.

Investment's like striking a match,
That energy you put in makes the fire catch
For glycolysis investments two ATPs,
Which act as activation energy

Enzymes take phosphate from ATPs
Jam 'em on a glucose rearranging it to fructose,
Leaving Fructose 1- 6 bisphosphate on the table,
With two phosphates, it's highly unstable!

Moving us to the second phase
The cleaving of Fructose bisphosphate
Cause glycolysis means splitting sugar, you can see
cleavage yields two molecules with carbons three

One is glyceraldehyde 3 phosphate G3P
It continues on our pathway broken down for energy
But the second one an enzyme will immediately,
Convert into a second G3P

CHORUS

Phase 3: G3P gets rearranged and oxidized,
By an enzymatic assembly line,
That harvest energy from each G3P
One NADH and 2 ATPs

Double this yield per G3P
To two NADH and 4 ATPs
That's the gross yield for every glucose in
A generous accounting of glycolysis's win

But 2ATPs were invested in phase 1
So you net just two you can use to jump or run,
Put two in, get four out, your net gain is two,
Two ATPs that you can use.

If that doesn't seem like very much, it's cause it ain't,
There's tons of energy left in pyruvate,
The two three carbon molecules we're left with at the end.
And what happens to pyruvate is gonna depend,

On the metabolic pathway where pyruvate gets sent,
If its anaerobic it'll be fermented
But in aerobic cells pyruvate's termination
Will be the Krebs cycle and total oxidation!

CHORUS

Review: glycolysis starts with investment
of two ATPs to the glucose that we started with,
The product is cleaved into two G3Ps
From which the cell harvests NADH and ATPs.

This anaerobic pathway is respiration's first phase,
It's billions of year's old evolved in ancient days
before O2 accumulated in the seas, before
eukaryotic cells like ours arrived on the scene

It's everywhere, ubiquitous, in every organism,
Bacteria, sequoia tree, no matter your metabolism,
Happens in the cytoplasm doesn't need no organelles.
You wanna find glycolysis? Look in any cell!

[sciencemusicvideos]

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[onibuggii]

i failed my exam bc all i remembered was the “glycolysis, come on sugar. come on sugar, for the breakdown. for the breakdown.” part 😂😂😂☠️

[BrianBrown]

I think my pyruvate just fermented, because that took my breath away.

[BlackGypoMagic]

I died  at "hey sugar" LOLOL

[JugCityKid]

This man dropped so much fire, I burned my hands holding my macbook.

[fisticuf]

Glenn, I'm not sure if it's just the end of my all-nighter speaking, but I think I love you man.

[bishopscore]

he made more sense than my biochemistry lecturer. making glycolysis and Krebs cycle look so simple.

[wafflesplash]

I wanna see this guy in a rap battle throwdown with Bill Nye

[sabaakhtar]

Glycolysis, come on sugar, come on sugar for the break down.
These lyrics are the only thing going on in my head now.

[JoseLuis-xhil]

The first ten seconds. I didn't know you could fit so many biology puns in ten seconds... 

[JackBrilla]

The weird feeling you get when you refuse to look at the comments because you feel as if you are as weird as the people for listing to this song.

[melissagarzam]

I remember when I first heard this song. Our biology teacher showed us this video and we all learnt it for our biology quiz on glycolysis and cellular respiration. That was back in 2013 when I was in 7th grade. Yet here I am, 7 years later and I still know every lyric to the song and have used it endless times during high school and now that I am studying medicine.

May my biology teacher rest in peace, and thank you Mr.W for this amazing tutorial which has helped me and my classmates lots.

Best. Song. Ever. For. Studying. Glycolysis.

[staticbubblegum]

This song got me through grade 12 bio and now 4 years later it's getting me through the MCAT 💪🏼 thanks Mr. W

[davidbadiola]

yo this song is actually pretty dope, cuz its got a nice beat, nice synths, and he could even sing better than some legit artists out there. kudos man, and this video really helped lol

[cmo]

This YouTube video just put the biggest smile on my face. We need more people like you! 

[MaddieCollins]

this makes me uncomfortable but i like it

[IvysLifeStyle]

WHO ELSE IS GONNA SING THIS IN THEIR HEAD TOMORROW?

[margarettjarquin]

Hi Mr. W-- LearnBio got me through AP Bio my senior year and now as a freshman at USC, I still go into my highschool email so that I can access all of your tutorials and survive college bio! I'm currently studying for my next midterm which covers cellular respiration and photosynthesis. Thanks for all the help!

[TheJellonarwhal]

Mr. W out here dropping the tastiest bars of 2012 with the most buttery hook, mad respects for this man

[blitzgolu]

"hey sugar, come on over here sweety" .. lol