All About ATP

Overview💡

This is the structure of ATP. ATP stands for adenosine triphosphate.

You will find the adenosine group on the right, a sugar in the middle, and 3 phosphate groups on the left. The three phosphate groups give the molecule the "T" in its name, as it stands for "tri", or 3.

Notes

All of the oxygens surrounding the phosphate give it a negative charge→ this tells us that ATP wants to interact with things that are positively charged!!

Fun Fact: Mg2+ is used in reactions that utilize ATP to stabilize its negative charge.

Also, ATP does not have a phosphodiester bond→ it is a phosphoanhydride bond!

Why ATP?

ATP is used due to the fact that it is kinetically stable and thermodynamically unstable.

Let's look into this further…

Kinetically stable:

So when we say something is kinetically stable, we are essentially saying that it is not going to easily undergo a reaction. This matters because when we leave ATP alone, we do not want it to get randomly broken down. ATP gets stored, so it is important it has a good “shelf life”.

Thermodynamically unstable:

ATP has a lot of energy stored in its bonds. In fact, ATP has a ΔG°’ of -30.5kJ/mol. So, when it undergoes a reaction, it will release this energy.

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