Professional Documents
Culture Documents
How Does ATP Couple Endergonic and Exergonic Reactions
How Does ATP Couple Endergonic and Exergonic Reactions
To help make this clearer, I've drawn a diagram of the Glutamic acid
+ Ammonia Glutamine reaction above. The big blue molecule is
glutamic acid; the other players in the drama are labelled.
In the first stage, the reactants are in place, but since the reaction is
non-spontaneous, they are powerless to get going. ATP arrives to
help out.
In the second stage, ATP is hydrolysed to ADP + Pi. However, the
phosphate group binds to the glutamic acid molecule
(phosphorylates it). This phosphorylated intermediate is more
reactive than the glutamic acid was by itself.
In the final stage, the ammonia group displaces the phosphate one.
This reaction is spontaneous, thanks to the phosphate group making
the complex in stage 2 more unstable. Thus, ATP allows glutamine
to be formed via two spontaneous reactions, but the price to be paid
is that the ATP molecule has been used up - it has been hydrolysed
to ADP and Pi.
There are many other examples of ATP's action, but in almost all
cases a substance is phosphorylated. As always, this
phosphorylated intermediate is more reactive than the original
reactant, and so what was once an endergonic reaction is thus
rendered exeronic by the coupling of the original reaction with the
hydrolysis of ATP