Molecules That Store Energy Are

Why the trunk needs nutrient

Your metabolism is the drove of chemic reactions that occur in your cells to sustain life. Some of these reactions use stored energy to build things up, which we call anabolism, while other reactions break things down, releasing energy that can be stored for future use, and this is called catabolism. Imagine that the hamburger you lot're having for dinner, fabricated of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, is a drove of lego blocks of various colors and shapes. It took a lot of energy to organize those blocks into that complex construction, and breaking the blocks apart releases that energy and frees the blocks so that they can be built dorsum up into new things. Your torso does exactly that when you eat your nutrient. Here'south a brief video lecture that summarizes this concept.

lego hamburger

Living things break down the three major categories of foods (proteins, fats, and carbohydrates) into their constituent parts, the individual lego blocks, for ii reasons. 1) Once the nutrient atoms and groups of atoms (molecules) are broken down, they can be built back up into the specific kinds of things the organism needs, like bone, muscle, pare, hair, feathers, fur, bark, leaves, etc. two) Breaking down the food molecules releases the free energy that was holding them together, and that released free energy is temporarily stored by the cell for the re-building process. Each of these food types requires a different breakup process, and we'll expect at those after, but the goal is the aforementioned–take the free energy that held those food molecules together and release information technology so that information technology can be stored in a grade that the jail cell can utilize later to build what it needs. The prison cell has a special kind of molecule for storing that energy, and information technology'due south called ATP.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adenosine_triphosphate

battery

ATP (Adenosine tri-phosphate) is an important molecule found in all living things. Think of it as the "free energy currency" of the cell. If a prison cell needs to spend energy to accomplish a task, the ATP molecule splits off one of its three phosphates, becoming ADP (Adenosine di-phosphate) + phosphate. The energy holding that phosphate molecule is now released and available to do work for the cell. When the prison cell has actress energy (gained from breaking down nutrient that has been consumed or, in the case of plants, made via photosynthesis), information technology stores that free energy by reattaching a free phosphate molecule to ADP, turning it back into ATP. The ATP molecule is just like a rechargeable bombardment. When it'south fully charged, information technology's ATP. When it'south run downward, information technology's ADP. However, the battery doesn't get thrown abroad when information technology'southward run down–information technology just gets charged up over again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adenosine_diphosphate

ATP ß à ADP + P + energy

Here'due south what information technology looks similar chemically. Each phosphate is a PO_four (oxygen has a charge of -2 and there are 4 of them, for a total of -eight, and P has a charge of +five, then the net charge on the phosphate group is -3. If free H atoms, which are +ane, become added to the O atoms that aren't bonded to two things, then the net charge is zero.)

ATP ADP

ß à

ATP ADP

There are times when the cell needs fifty-fifty more energy, and it splits off some other phosphate, then information technology goes from ADP, adenoside di-phosphate, to AMP, adenosine mono-phosphate.

ATP ß à ADP + P + energy ß à AMP + P + energy

ADP AMP

ß à

ADP AMP

There are other free energy storage molecules in the cell, like NAD and FAD, only the ATP organisation is the about common, and the most important. Recollect of the others as different brands of rechargable batteries that exercise the same job. Adjacent, we'll explore some of the pathways that the body uses to pause down foods of different types.

What about oxygen? Why do we demand that? What happens if you put a glass over a candle? You lot starve the fire of oxygen, and the flame flickers out. If a metabolic reaction is aerobic, it requires oxygen. Buy why? Here's an analogy. Recall nigh lighting a campfire. What exercise you need? You demand fuel (the woods), you lot need rut (it'south harder to light a burn when it's cold), and you demand oxygen (considering another word for burning is "oxidizing" and, as you might approximate, it can only occur in the presence of oxygen). Oxidizing something causes it to lose electrons, which ways that energy (the electrons) is released when you oxidize, or burn, a fuel. Your nutrient is your fuel. You burn the fuel for energy. You need the oxygen to burn the fuel. This happens in the mitochondria.