Christmas is becoming near and a well known Christmas song (Santa Claus is Coming to Town) was adapted to describe the way hemoglobin works.
Oh isn't it great
What proteins can do
Especially ones that bind to O
Hemoglobin's moving around
Inside of the lungs
It picks up the baitAnd changes itself from T to R state
Hemoglobin's moving around
The proto-porphyrin system
Its iron makes such a sceneArising when an O binds
Pulling up on histidine
The binding occurs
Cooperatively
Thanks to changes qua-ter-nar-y
Hemoglobin's moving around
It exits the lungs
Engorged with O
In search of a working body tissue
Hemoglobin's moving aroundThe proton concentration
Is high and has a role
Between the alpha betas
It finds imidazole
To empty their loads
The globins decree"We need to bind 2,3BPG"
Hemoglobin's moving around
The stage is thus set
For grabbing a few
Cellular dumps of CO
Hemoglobin's moving around
And then inside the lungs it
Discovers ox-y-gen
And dumps the CO off
To start all o'er agin
So see how this works
You better expect
To have to describe the Bohr effect
Hemoglobin's moving around
