Welcome to Genus Lyrics (geddit? genus?), a corner to enjoy Rhys' retro romp through some hits of the 70s and 80s, lovingly adapted to communicate some synthetic biology concepts related to our project. Our musical forbears refined the art of the earworm, the catchy song driven by fun guitar riffs and memorable lyrics. If I were to be able to harness a fraction of the stick-in-your-head, hum-subconsciously-for-days power possessed by those songs which were my inspirations, then I would have succeeded in my quest to get students and people of all walks of life interested in and thinking about the wonders of SynBio and genetic engineering.
Worth noting also (mostly because I'm quite proud of it) is the fact that I recorded all of the instruments on all of these tracks from my own home, mostly out of necessity to deliver something for this project despite heavy Covid-19 restrictions in Sydney, Australia.
Track List
Birthed purely out of a preoccupation with the fact that 'Coli Chameleon' fits so well into the meter of the Boy George, Culture Club classic 'Karma Chameleon', this was the inception of the idea of writing an 'E. coli EP'. But in a lot of ways, the comparison between SynBio's darling (who will get full airtime later on) and a chameleon is quite apt. Chameleons are renowned for their ability to be transformed by their environment. In much the same way our project aims to make a strain of E. coli that is also transformable of its own accord. Another parallel that I quite enjoy is the similarity of the structure of the Type IV pilus (the machinery which we intended to transplant in from A. baylyi) and that of a chameleon's tongue - the chameleons tongue extends out and catches insects with its sticky tip, and the type IV pilus is extended out into the environment to catch environment and draw it back to the cell. How's that for symbolism! Hopefully this song gives you a concise and fun introduction to the design of our project.
Hover over the lyrics to get author's commentary
Verse 1 In the modern world we have a cool new trick
We can make you express new genes mighty quick But the way is quite expensive
But the way is hard to do Could we give you competency
With a gene or two
With a gene or two... (or twenty five!)
Chorus Coli, coli, coli, coli, coli chameleon
You take up genes, you take up genes Cloning would be easy if we gave you a new machine
A new machine
A new machine
Verse 2 We've identified a lot of genes to try
From Acinetobacter baylyi With the help of a fancy plasmid With the help of some PCR Can we do what no-one else did
Lower the bar
Lower the bar
Chorus
Coli, coli, coli, coli, coli chameleon
You take up genes, you take up genes
Cloning would be easy if we gave you a new machine
A new machine
A new machine
Who doesn't love the Pina Colada song? Connoisseurs of late 1970s one hit wonders will notice the nod to the parenthetical title (the song is actually called 'Escape', but who remembers that?) Undoubtably Rupert Holmes most enduring work (with apologies to his work in musical theatre), I set out to capture the love story narrative and amusing ending of the original version. This also serves as (I believe) quite a fun way to introduce the different modes of horizontal gene transfer, which are made topical not only by their applicability to synthetic biology (our project is all about transformation) but also by their importance in the emerging problem of antibiotic resistance. This song is written from the perspective of a bacterium (of unspecified taxonomy) who observes transformation, transduction and conjugation in his environment, and finds love in a PG, unicellular kind of way
Hover over the lyrics to get author's commentary
Verse 1 I was floating 'round and looking
For new potential to tap When I snagged a plasmid building out a pilus as a trap I slurped it up with relish
Like spaghetti from a chef And now through transformation I picked up fertility factor F
Chorus If you'd like biofluorescence
So you can glow in UV
Antibiotic resistance
Or a kinase or three
If you need horizontal transfer
To help you enter the fray
Then you're the microbe I've looked for
Now let's swap DNA!
Verse 2
You were living in my culture
You'd just burst onto the stage
When along came swimming A bacteriophagev
Chomped into your cell membrane
And it left quite a mark
You underwent transduction And now you glow in the dark!
Chorus
If you'd like biofluorescence
So you can glow in UV
Antibiotic resistance
Or a kinase or three
If you need horizontal transfer
To help you enter the fray
Then you're the microbe I've looked for
Now let's swap DNA!
Verse 3 When I saw you glowing You took my broth away
Up went my rate of respiration
I had to help you some way So with my newfound proteins I built a pilus to you
And now through conjugation
You've got factor F too.
Chorus
If you'd like biofluorescence
So you can glow in UV
Antibiotic resistance
Or a kinase or three
If you need horizontal transfer
To help you enter the fray
Then you're the microbe I've looked for
Now let's swap DNA!
I'll be honest, I wanted to do something a bit more hard rocking and allow myself a little slightly distorted guitar. This is, of course, a take on the Derek and the Dominos (read: Eric Clapton) tune Layla, which notably has a hard rocking section and a mellow piano instrumental section totalling up to over 7 minutes. I figured that a lengthy instrumental wasn't really fit for science communication purpose, so it was omitted. The actual sung part of the song is quite short, so it was challenging to write meaningful and educational lyrics with few syllables to work with. I originally built this around the chorus being ‘CRISPR' because of how much crossover renown CRISPR technology has enjoyed in the wider world. Upon further reading, however, (betraying my lack of full genetic engineering background),it became clear to me that the real unsung (literally) workhorse of the CRISPR craze was Cas9, and it deserved its own song.
Hover over the lyrics to get author's commentary
Verse 1 How're you gonna get your genes in
Recombineering's let you down
You've been looking, huntin high and low
For a better way to go
Chorus Cas9 (you let us cut up genes) Cas9 (you're from S. pyogenes) Cas9 (you will change the therapeutic world)
Verse 2 First you gotta snip the genome
Create a site to add new stuff You come in, you know where to begin
Guide RNA's led you in
Chorus
Cas9 (you let us cut up genes)
Cas9 (you're from S. pyogenes)
Cas9 (you will change the therapeutic world)
Verse 3 To add your new DNA sequence
Flank it with homology
Native proteins will notice there's a tear:
homology directed repair
Chorus
Cas9 (you let us cut up genes)
Cas9 (you're from S. pyogenes)
Cas9 (you will change the therapeutic world)
As much as I love the hard rocking end of the musical spectrum, I also have a soft spot for the acoustic and the harmonic. This fantastic Gerry Beckley penned America (the band, not the continent) tune ‘Sister Golden Hair' is a favourite of mine, and when I realised that the lyrics 'Sister golden hair surprise' and 'Escherichia coli' scanned exactly the same, I knew I had to do it. We hear a lot about E. coli being the model SynBio organism, but it struck me that I didn't entirely know why. So I decided that a song that went through the case for E. coli might be worthwhile. I think it's a nice introduction to E. coli for someone who's interested in learning more about synthetic biology. Also, before anyone says anything, I know I pronounced Escherichia slightly wrong (the 'ch' should sound like a 'k'), deal with it, it's an artistic choice.
Hover over the lyrics to get author's commentary
Verse 1 Now I keep on thinking 'bout you
Escherichia coli
And just what it is that makes you
The apple of Synbio's eye
Are you cheap to buy and culture?
Are you super well defined?
So I did some reading
To see what I could find
Verse 2
Now I've looked at your credentials
And quite frankly I'm impressed You grow faster than a lab rat And at limited expense
In chemically defined environments
Which are cheap as chips to buy And without much need for
Help or oversight
Chorus We can grow you well at lab scale, we can grow you in huge vats We can coax you into making drugs and pigments, oils and fats You're the perfect host
We love you most
You can do anything
Verse 3 We've checked out all your genome
And we know what most bits do And we know where to insert stuff
So that it won't upset you We transform you like it's nothing We've got plasmids by the ton We can mould you into
Anything we want.
Chorus
We can grow you well at lab scale, we can grow you in huge vats
We can coax you into making drugs and pigments, oils and fats
You're the perfect host
We love you most
You can do anything
Conclusion
I genuinely had a blast making these songs, and I hope that you the learned reader not only enjoyed but also learned something from some of these songs or my commentary thereof. If you want, share them around with someone who might like them, I would be thrilled if my creations helped anyone or got even one person interested in synthetic biology and its processes and techniques. Thank you for listening!
