The below mentioned article provides a note on Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP).
Adenosine Triphosphate is an energy intermediate. Both energy-yielding and energy-consuming reactions occur within the living cell. The potential or stored energy of one compound, such as glucose, is released and utilised, in a most efficient manner, to drive the synthesis of other compounds, such as proteins.
This energy, now stored in the newly synthesised compound (e.g., protein), can in turn made be available for other synthetic reactions. However, energy-yielding reactions of the cell occur in many instances in the absence of energy-consuming reactions. The energy released in such situation is in the form of heat and lost to the organism.
However, nature has provided the living cell with a means of temporary energy storage in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP).
Thus, energy released in oxidation of compounds, such as carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, etc., is immediately utilised in the synthesis of ATP from adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and inorganic phosphate (i.P.).
ATP is capable of receiving energy from one reaction and transferring this to drive another reaction. This is of obvious advantage to the living system, as ATP can be formed in the oxidation of a variety of compounds and can be used for synthesis of a variety of compounds.
In other words, oxidation of a compound, such as glucose, can provide the energy, through ATP, for synthesis of several cellular materials.
On the other hand, fuel burned in engines, where a large amount of released energy is lost in the form of heat, the oxidation of substances in the cell occurs with relatively little loss of energy. This is due to reason of the cell’s very efficient energy transfer system mediated by ATP.
Here it is notable that the energy locked in a biological compound may be transferred repeatedly. Thus, in the living cell, the stored energy of glucose may be found at one time in ATP and at another time locked in the bonds of a protein molecule.