The importance of ATP

• Organisms can be classified according to the way they obtain energy.

1. Autotrophic organisms- make organic compounds from carbon dioxide. Most
of them do this by photosynthesis.eg:plants,algae and some bacteria
2. Heterotrophic organisms- eat plants or other animals to obtain energy
• The universal energy supplier in cells is called as ATP(adenosine triphosphate) (fig B
pg 4)

• When energy is needed the third phosphate bond is broken by a hydrolysis reaction,
catalysed by the enzyme ATPase. Products of this reaction are ADP(Adenosine
diphosphate), inorganic phosphate (Pi) and energy. This is a reversible reaction. (fig
C pg5)

• About 34KJ of energy is released when 1 mole of ATP gets hydrolysed. Some of this
energy is wasted as heat and the rest is used in cell activities such as active
transport, anabolic reactions and muscle contractions.
• The energy needed to synthesise ATP is taken from catabolic
reactions(reduction/oxidation reactions, redox reactions) eg: cellular respiration,
removal of hydrogen atoms from several of the intermediate compounds in a
metabolic pathway(fig D pg 5)
• When two hydrogen atoms are removed from a compound they are collected by a
hydrogen acceptor or a carrier. Then the acceptor gets reduced.
Electrons from the hydrogen atoms are then transferred along a series of carriers
known as an electron transport chain.
• The components in the electron transport chain are reduced when they receive
electrons and oxidised when they lose electrons.
• This series of redox reactions lead in each step to produce 1 molecule of ATP as a
little energy is released.