Oxidate it or love it / Electron to the next one
[Verse One: Oxidate it or Love it]
Yeah – let’s eat a snack. Uh huh
In high school I was confused by the oxidation of food
It seemed too complex, glycoly- had me confused
But it’s a simple concept, so now I’m in the mood for
Learnin’ how I’m burnin’ glucose as a food source
I wanna live good so my cells take energy
From the bonds in the sugar put ‘em into ATP
Takes ten enzymes and it takes ten steps
Wind up with two pyruvates, yeah, they still got energy left
So mitochondria can take ‘em to burn
It down to acetyl CoA so Kreb’s gon’ turn
So the energy you get from eating them blue berries
Is ferried to where high-energy electrons are carried

[Chorus One: Oxidate it or Love it]
Hate it or love it glycolysis gon’ chop
Glucose down to two three-C blocks
Go head study me. I make ATP
And I’ma be on your test, so you should get to know me
And if you’ve got enough oxygen in stock
Kreb's gon’ cycle, homey, until your heart stops
Go ahead study me. I help make ATP
By making NADH, so you should get to know me
[Verse Two Teaser: Oxidate ir or Love it]
NADH Dehydro! Inner-Membrane of the Mitochon
Using NADH from Kreb’s to pump protons
Thanks to electrons, which we’re transporting
So important that we got to switch it to the next song

[Chorus Two: “Electron to the Next One”]
Got so many ways to pump protons…. choose one
Now let ‘em flow. And watch your ATP supply grow
Electron to the next one, on to the next one
Electron to the next one, on to the next one
Electron to the next one, on to the next one
Hold up, freeze. Somebody synthesize some ATPs!

[Verse Two: “Electron to the Next One”]
Oxy Phos is pretty complex. Students say how come?
If it wasn’t so many steps – inefficient outcome
If the energy from the food that you eat
Was burned in one big step, then you’d lose more as heat
So when those e minuses move down the chain
They make protons move across the membrane
And when the pro- flow gets the synthase arumbling
To make ATP - chemiosmotic coupling
But as electrons get passed along, see
To help do their work, they lose a little moxy
So by the end, you gonna need an oxy
To remove the e- and keep it rolling like Yahtzee
Kreb’s is making CO2, and oxy’s oxidating
Why do you think they call it cellular respiration?
Burning our food to make ATP stacks, son
Oxygen present? Electron to the next one
Lollipops and tangerines
Somebody synthesize some ATPs
[Verse Three: “Oxidate it or Love it”]
So all you kids thinking, “What’s the point of all these
Crazy steps, what a mess, makin’ ATPs?
Why you gotta do from glu- to pyru- from Co-As to synthase?”
Shoot, why do you think we need to breath?
Well, adenosine triphosphate’s beauty -
It ain’t hard to tell - helps the cell do its duty
Even Judy could judge that crucial to me
To pump sodium out or keep myosin moving
Which is to say that it’s fuel for your brain
Or your muscles in a tussle, insane
So when you think, jerk, run, ball, take a test, or drop new flows
Remember how you make ATP out of glucose

[Chorus 3: “Oxidate it or Love it”]
Hate it or love it glycolysis gonna chop
Glucose down to two three-C blocks
Go ahead study me I make ATP
And if you eat a burrito then you can get to know me

And if you got enough oxygen in stock
Mitochondria will do oxy phos
Go ahead study me, I make ATP
I make a helluva lot, so you should get to know me