Every body's made from cells
Got to be small to do their job well
Your body's made of millions, a Euglena's made of one
Some cells eat others, others just lie in the sun.

The cell membrane covers the outside like a skin
It keeps the bad out, lets the good stuff in
Inside the cell membrane's the cytoplasm
Full of organelles--if you're a eukaryote, you has 'em.

The nucleus commands and controls
The lysosome digests cell parts when they're old
But the cell wouldn't work, it just couldn't run
Without the power released by the MIGHTY MITOCHONDRION!

Yes, the mitochondrion's got that peanut look
The energy it releases makes the rest of the cell "cook"
It takes the energy from glucose*, makes ATP
So that muscle cells contract and white cells can fight disease.

Digestive enzymes are made in the pancreas on ribosomes
Then they're transported through the endoplasmic reticulum
To the Golgi where they're packed in a bubble (secretory vesicle),
To keep them out of trouble
But when you eat, they're released on the double
To turn your food into monomer rubble!

Now plant cells have structures animal cells lack
Cell walls, large vacuoles and chloroplasts
Starch is stored in leucoplasts in a potato
The red comes from chromoplasts in a tomato
With all those organelles hummin', a cell runs like an organized tornado.

Every body's made from cells
Got to be small to do their job well
Your body's made of millions, a Euglena's made of one
Some cells eat others, others just lie in the sun.
But the cell wouldn't work, it just couldn't run
Without the power released by the MIGHTY MITOCHONDRION!

* The glucose (6 carbons) is first broken down to 2 pyruvic acid molecules (3 carbons) in the cytoplasm in glycolysis. The pyruvic acid then enters the mitochondrion and its energy is used to make ATP in cellular respiration.