ATP

• What does ATP stand for?

  adenosine triphosphate
• What is ATP?


  the source of energy in a cell
• Why do we produce ATP?

  When plants and animals respire, they release energy from glucose but a cell can't get its energy directly from glucose , so the energy released in respiration is used to produce ATP
• What is ATP a derivative of?

  RNA nucleotide
• What is the structure of ATP?

  Adenine (nitrogenous base)

  ribose (pentose sugar)

  3 phosphate groups
• Where is energy stored in ATP?

  in the high energy bonds between the phosphates
• How does ATP provide energy?

  Energy is released when an ATP molecule is broken into an ADP molecule and an inorganic phosphate
• What type of reaction is this and how does it happen?

  Hydrolysis reaction catalysed by the enzyme ATP hydrolase - breaks a phosphate bond releasing its energy.
• How does ATP hydrolysis reduce energy/heat loss?

  it can be 'couples' to other energy-requiring reactions in the cell so the energy released can be used directly to make the coupled reaction happen rather than being lost as heat.
• What happens to the released inorganic phosphate?


  Can be added to another compound (phosphorylation) to make the compound more reactive
• How is ATP resynthesised?

  - by a condensation reaction between ADP and the phosphate ion

  - this happens during both respiration and photosynthesis

  - catalysed by the ATP synthase