SONGLyrical DNA
Monomer to Monomer
A song about how cells build and take apart macromolecules. The lyrics move between dehydration synthesis, which joins monomers and releases water, and hydrolysis, which uses water to split polymers back into their parts. Select any highlighted line to see the biology behind it.
Trouble playing? Watch on YouTube
Interactive lyrics
Lines with a dotted underline and a + marker have an explanation. Select one and the science appears beside the lyrics. Everything else is ordinary lyric text.
Verse 1
You showed up like water, slipped between the seams
Pre-Chorus
So this is how it breaks -
when water finds the ache
Chorus
Hydrolysis, tearing us in two
I'm a smaller piece of who I was with you
(Broke the bond, broke the bond, gave the water and it's gone)
Verse 2
But something in the losing wants to build again
Strip the water off me, let me reach for you and then -
Pre-Chorus
we lose it all to stay
Chorus
Dehydration, putting us back whole
Gave up what was easy for a bond that holds the strain
Two halves in synthesis, we're never one and the same
(Lose the water, hold the line, monomer to monomer, entwined)
Bridge
Break me - hydrolyze me
Build me - synthesize me
(a compromise, a compromise)
Final Chorus
Every drop we sacrifice is everything we know
Not the same two pieces that were torn apart before -
Outro
Break, and build, and break, and build -
that's the reaction we live in
Concepts covered
Covalent bonds between monomersMonomers in a polymer are held to each other by covalent bonds, which are strong and do not simply come apart on their own. Hydrolysis is the reaction that cleaves one of those bonds, and it does so by adding the parts of a water molecule across it.
HydrolysisHydrolysis breaks a covalent bond by adding the components of water across it. One product receives hydrogen and the other receives a hydroxyl group.
Breaking polymers into monomersHydrolysis can separate a polymer into smaller units or monomers. Digestion uses hydrolysis to break biological macromolecules into components cells can absorb or reuse.
Dehydration synthesisDuring dehydration synthesis, an H from one reactant and an OH from another form water. Removing those groups allows a new covalent bond to form between the reactants.
Building polymersRepeated dehydration reactions can link many monomers into a polymer. Examples include forming proteins from amino acids and polysaccharides from monosaccharides.
Building macromolecules to growOrganisms grow by using atoms and molecules taken in from the environment to build new, larger molecules. Dehydration synthesis is the reaction that joins those units, linking monomers into the carbohydrates, proteins and nucleic acids a growing body needs.
Polymers are not permanentA polymer is a long chain of monomers joined by covalent bonds through repeated dehydration synthesis. No polymer is truly unbreakable, though; hydrolysis can cleave those same bonds and release the monomers, so cells are always both building and breaking macromolecules.
Opposing reaction patternsThis is a memorable shorthand: hydrolysis consumes water while breaking a bond, whereas dehydration synthesis produces water while forming one. Real reactions also depend on enzymes and cellular energy conditions.
