How do plants make their own food?

FIRST QUARTER

■ We learned that organisms are made up of cells

which have different structures, types, functions,
ways of reproducing and transport mechanisms.
■ Note that cells need energy to continue their
functions.
Where do cells get energy?
ATP
■ADENOSINE TRIPHOSPHATE
FIRST
■We will operationally define
Adenosine TriPhosphate (ATP) and
Adenosine DiPhosphate (ADP).
2nd
■We will compare and contrast ATP
and ADP.
3rd
■We will explain how energy from
ATP is generated and used to fuel
activities or reactions in the cell
through coupled reaction processes.
Lastly
■We will explain the ATP-ADP cycle.
ATP

■ A nucleotide that is considered to be the major energy

source of the cell.
■ It provides energy for most of energy-consuming of
the cell.
■ It is also dubbed as the energy currency of the cell.
■ Since it is a nucleotide, it is a molecule that is composed
of a nitrogen base adenine, sugar and phosphate group.
■ On the other hand, Adenosine Diphosphate (ADP), is also a nucleotide
but is composed of adenine, ribose and two phosphate groups only.
■ However, they differ on the number of phosphate groups that they
have. ATP has three phosphate groups while ADP has only two.
 CELLULAR
RESPIRATION

■ First, the food that is eaten by organisms is digested to food molecules like carbohydrates,
such as glucose, and lipids. These food molecules are further broken down to produce ATP
through a series of processes called cellular respiration. The processes involved in cellular
respiration will be discussed in details in the next lesson. For now, what is important for us to
know is that the food is broken down to produce ATP.
■ Second The ATPs that are produced will react with water inside the cell in
process called HYDROLYSIS
■ In this process, the phosphate bond between the second and third phosphate groups in
ATP will be broken with the help of enzyme ATPase.
■ This breaking of bond in the phosphate group will cause a release of energy and
produces Adenosine Diphosphate or ADP and one inorganic phosphate.
■ Third, all the released energy from ATP will just be transformed into heat energy if not
used directly by the cell. And so, the cell has a mechanism to use the release energy to
fuel cellular activities such as moving molecules into and out of the cells, protein
confirmation, breaking and forming chemical bond, muscle cell contraction and other
tasks the cell needs to do.
■ This mechanism of using or transferring energy from one
chemical reaction to another is called coupled reaction
processes.
■ Note that hydrolysis of ATP is an exergonic reaction or a reaction that releases energy.
■ On the other hand, to activate a cellular activity is an endergonic reaction or reaction
that needs energy input.
■ And so, using the released energy from hydrolysis of ATP as an energy input to
fuel cellular activities is an example of coupled reaction processes as shown in
the figure.
■ Lastly, as the cell requires more energy, more ATPs are needed.
The cell then regenerates ATP by adding an inorganic phosphate
group to ADP. This process of adding an inorganic phosphate
group is called phosphorylation of ADP. In this reaction, energy
is required to add an inorganic phosphate group to ADP which
will result to ATP.
■ In hydrolysis, a bond is broken between two phosphate groups while in
phosphorylation, a bond is formed between two phosphate groups.
■ In terms of types of reaction, hydrolysis is exergonic thus energy is released while in
phosphorylation is endergonic therefore energy is absorbed. Then, the enzyme
involved in hydrolysis is ATPase while in phosphorylation, the enzyme is ATP
synthase.
■ Notice that the hydrolysis of ATP and phosphorylation of ADP forms a cyclic reaction. This
cyclic reaction where phosphate bonds are broken or formed and energy is released or stored
is called the ATP-ADP cycle.
■ The ATP-ADP cycle is also a product of coupled reaction processes: the coupling of
hydrolysis and phosphorylation. They are coupled reaction processes because some of the
energy released from hydrolysis of ATP can be used to fuel phosphorylation of ADP as
shown in the figure.