Uploaded December 2018 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Here is a Creative Extra Credit Assignment for Biology 350, Microbiology, at the University of Puget Sound (Fall 2018). This #Micronaut took a Taylor Swift song (or "T-Swizzle" as she referred to the artist) and made it about horizontal gene transfer. My students continue to amaze me in so many ways. Enjoy!
The #Micronaut's lyrics to Taylor Swift's "Love Story." youtu.be/8xg3vE8Ie_E.
We were both young when I first saw you
Just been streaked out into single colonies
You said hello, would you like some pGLO
See the lights, see the agar, the NB
See your colonies spread across the plate
You said hello,
little did I know
That you had this glow, you were fluorescent
My nucleus said stay away from that microbe
But that light that you put off is telling me I should glooooooow
And I said,
Microbe lets go get horizontal
Swap some DNA, there are so many ways
Conjugation, Transduction, Transformation
It’s a love story let’s do some HGT
So I stuck out my pilus to find you
Hit your cell wall and started to fuse
You open up, let your DNA flow through
Oh oh
Cause you had pGLO, you were fluorescent,
And my nucleus said stay away from that microbe
But now under UV, I just needed to glowwww
And I said,
Microbe lets go get horizontal
Swap some DNA, there are so many ways
Conjugation, Transduction, Transformation
It’s a love story let’s do some HGT
We can swap fragments or whole genomes
You’ll get some of my traits, and that’s a steal
If you want you can have my amp resistance
It’s a love story doing some HGT
Glow oh oh
I got tired of waiting
For your genome to shuttle around
My glowing hopes were (beat) fading
When I saw something membrane bound
And I said,
Microbe what’s this? a new form of transfer
Looks like transduction but there’s something different
His membrane started closing off then he tried to speak
The vesicle pinched off
Fused, and then I saw the ring
Here is my plasmid to take into your genome
Splice it in and then you’ll really glow
DNAse was breaking down all of my DNA
This membrane bound vesicle came in to save the day
Glow oh oh
Glow, glow
Our genomes just got horizontal
Here is a Creative Extra Credit Assignment for Biology 350, Microbiology, at the University of Puget Sound (Fall 2018). This #Micronaut took a Taylor Swift song (or "T-Swizzle" as she referred to the artist) and made it about horizontal gene transfer. My students continue to amaze me in so many ways. Enjoy!
The #Micronaut's lyrics to Taylor Swift's "Love Story." youtu.be/8xg3vE8Ie_E.
We were both young when I first saw you
Just been streaked out into single colonies
You said hello, would you like some pGLO
See the lights, see the agar, the NB
See your colonies spread across the plate
You said hello,
little did I know
That you had this glow, you were fluorescent
My nucleus said stay away from that microbe
But that light that you put off is telling me I should glooooooow
And I said,
Microbe lets go get horizontal
Swap some DNA, there are so many ways
Conjugation, Transduction, Transformation
It’s a love story let’s do some HGT
So I stuck out my pilus to find you
Hit your cell wall and started to fuse
You open up, let your DNA flow through
Oh oh
Cause you had pGLO, you were fluorescent,
And my nucleus said stay away from that microbe
But now under UV, I just needed to glowwww
And I said,
Microbe lets go get horizontal
Swap some DNA, there are so many ways
Conjugation, Transduction, Transformation
It’s a love story let’s do some HGT
We can swap fragments or whole genomes
You’ll get some of my traits, and that’s a steal
If you want you can have my amp resistance
It’s a love story doing some HGT
Glow oh oh
I got tired of waiting
For your genome to shuttle around
My glowing hopes were (beat) fading
When I saw something membrane bound
And I said,
Microbe what’s this? a new form of transfer
Looks like transduction but there’s something different
His membrane started closing off then he tried to speak
The vesicle pinched off
Fused, and then I saw the ring
Here is my plasmid to take into your genome
Splice it in and then you’ll really glow
DNAse was breaking down all of my DNA
This membrane bound vesicle came in to save the day
Glow oh oh
Glow, glow
Our genomes just got horizontal
