• All organisms require a constant supply of energy to maintain their cells and stay alive
• In all organisms this energy is required for:
  • Anabolic reactions?(building larger molecules from smaller molecules)
  • Moving substances?across the cell membrane or moving substances within the cell

   

• In?animals?energy is also required for:
  • Muscle contraction – to coordinate movement at the whole-organism level
  • The conduction of nerve impulses

   

• In all known forms of life,?ATP?from respiration is used to?transfer energy?in all energy-requiring processes in cells
  • This is why ATP is known as the universal energy currency

   

• Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP)?is a?nucleotide
  • The monomers of DNA and RNA are also nucleotide

   

ATP

• Adenosine triphosphate?(ATP) is the energy-carrying molecule that provides the energy to drive many processes inside living cells
• ATP is?another type of nucleic acid?and hence it is structurally very similar to the nucleotides that make up DNA and RNA
• It is a?phosphorylated?nucleotide
• Adenosine (a nucleoside) can be combined with one, two or three phosphate groups
  • One phosphate group =?adenosine monophosphate?(AMP)
  • Two phosphate groups =?adenosine diphosphate?(ADP)
  • Three phosphate groups =?adenosine triphosphate?(ATP)

   

The structure of AMP, ADP and ATP