Metabolism Reaction and Energy Transform:

The ATP-ADP Cycle

All organisms continue to live because of energy.

But how do organism form bacteria and fungi to
plants and animals use energy? ATP is the
organism’s “battery”. It controls the amount and
timing of energy to be used and released within the
cells. ATP is vital for many chemical reactions to
occur, some of which are done to replace lost
molecules. You will learn more about what ATP can
do, how important it is, and how it works to provide
the power necessary in our bodies.
The Discovery of ATP

ATP was discovered by two competing teams in Harvard University, Jendrassik and
Karl Lohmann, and Cyrus Fiske and Yellapragada Subbarow. The inquiry into
photophate compounds or muscle filtrates led the teams to find an assay for
phosphorus. The competition of the two groups went through the discovery of both
phosphocreatine and ATP. Later on, Fiske and Subbarow published their isolation
and characterization of adenosine triphosphate in 1929, The Journal of Biological
Chemistry.

The Structure of ATP

The discovery of ATP structure was a serendipitous instance. Karl Lohmann

worked as head assistant in Meyerhof’s institute. He isolated ATP from muscle and
liver extracts. Prior to his study, Justus von Liebig discovered the deamination
product of adenine nucleotide by isolating a compound referred to as “inosinic
acid”. Lohmann succeeded through acid hydrolysis of the colorless substance,
which yielded two moles of phosphoric acid, one mole of adenine, and one mole of
ribose-5-phosphate. And after 20 years, in 1948, the molecule was first synthesized
artificially by Alexander Todd.
ATP Mechanism

All cells have a small storage of highly charged ATP molecules, located in
the cytoplasm of the cell. The adenosine and three inorganic phosphate
groups are all bonded together in sequence. Each of the phosphate bonds
has great energy potential that can be used in any cellular activity.
Particularly, the bond between the second and third phosphate groups
has the highest and most accessible energy.
Endergonic and Exergonic Reactions

All types of chemical reaction require the involvement of energy. In an

endergonic reaction, energy is a basic requirement for a chemical
reaction to commence. In fact, a chemical reaction requires more energy
than what you can get. Occasionally, the reaction continues to absord
energy throughout the process. Thus, the products are at a higher energy
level than the reactants. Endergonic reactions are nonspontaneous and
usually occur in organism, because they need to synthesize complex
molecule such as fats, amino acids, and sugars. Example of endergonic
reactions include photosynthesis and melting of ice to liquid water, wherein
large amounts of energy are needed for these processes to proceed. Heat
and light energy, for example, are required for glucose to be produced in
photosynthesis, whereas heat is needed for the ice to melt. Within the
body, endergonic reactions occur in protein synthesis, muscle contraction,
and nerve conduction.
Exergonic reactions, on the other hand, are spontaneous or favorable
chemical reactions wherein the products are at a lower energy level than
the reactants. In this case, the reactions release more energy than what
was required initially.
You have learned that ATP is the energy currency of organisms. It is used
as an immediate source of enerregy for all metabolic processes. Energy
is transferred when ATP breaks down into adenosine disphosphate
(ADP)and an inorganic phosphate. A significant amount of energy is
required to break the phosphate bonds in ATP. However, the next
processes will release energy as well. The breakage of ATP is a hydrolysis
reaction (a process of breaking the chemical bonds by using water.)
Following hydrolysis, the phosphate group that is released will receive
the OH group upon reaction with water, forming the inorganic
phosphate. The other hydrogen ion that is left from the water molecule
takes the place of the released phosphate, hence the formation of ADP.
In the process, two new bonds are formed so that a certain amount of
energy is released. Under standard cellular conditions, the amount of
energy produced from the hydrolysis of ATP is around 7.3 kcal per mole
and possibly up to 10 kcal per mole. This is almost equivalent to the
energy you get from a single peanut.
Coupled Reaction

ATP is a highly . It into ADP and phosphate even

when there is no activity requiring energy. Thus, this
energy is produced as free energy and is lost as
heat. , because cells are efficient, they harness this
free energy within the bonds a strategy called energy
coupling.
Simply put, a coupled reaction happens when the free energy from
an reaction is used to initiate an reaction by or "joining" the two
reactions, where they become . The of ATP is actually involved in
coupled reactions with numerous biochemical processes, such as
the of glucose (see figure 9.5)which is an initial step to its
conversion to fructose. is the process of adding a group to a
certain , such as glucose. The of ATP is an reaction because it
releases energy. This energy will then be used for an reaction,
such as the of glucose. creates a but . As the process continues,
the phosphate group slightly changes in shape to fit the , which
then the glucose molecule into a . The of these sugars is important
because glycolysis needs the fructose molecule to produce
energy.
When energy is released through , ATP the ADP,
having only two groups left in sequence instead of
three. One way to transform ADP back to ATP is
through the food that you consume. The use of ATP
for many biological and in the body happens with the
help of an called ATPase. You learned in the previous
module that help hasten in the body. To take
advantage of the bonds in ATP, almost all cells have
ATPases that help split the bonds of phosphate
groups to release the energy.