The chemical substance that serves as the currency of energy in a cell is adenosine triphosphate ATP. The more energy required for a chemical reaction, the more ATP molecules must be spent. Virtually all forms of life use ATP, a nearly universal molecule of energy transfer.
The energy released during catabolic reactions is stored in ATP molecules. In addition, the energy trapped in anabolic reactions such as photosynthesis is trapped in ATP molecules. An ATP molecule consists of three parts. One part is a double ring of carbon and nitrogen atoms called adenine. Attached to the adenine molecule is a small five-carbon carbohydrate called ribose. Attached to the ribose molecule are three phosphate units linked together by covalent bonds. The covalent bonds that unite the phosphate units in ATP are high-energy bonds.
When an ATP molecule is broken down by an enzyme, the third terminal phosphate unit is released as a phosphate group, which is an ion. When this happens, approximately 7. This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Adenosine 5'-triphosphate, or ATP, is the principal molecule for storing and transferring energy in cells. It is often referred to as the energy currency of the cell and can be compared to storing money in a bank.
ATP can be used to store energy for future reactions or be withdrawn to pay for reactions when energy is required by the cell. Animals store the energy obtained from the breakdown of food as ATP. Likewise, plants capture and store the energy they derive from light during photosynthesis in ATP molecules. ATP is a nucleotide consisting of an adenine base attached to a ribose sugar, which is attached to three phosphate groups.
These three phosphate groups are linked to one another by two high-energy bonds called phosphoanhydride bonds.
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