Question

What is a difference between ATP and ADP molecules?

Answer 1

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ADP is a product of ATP
adenasediphosphate and adenasetriphosphate
as the name suggests diphosphate is only 2 phosphate and tri tphosphate is 3 phosphate. during the process of converting ATP to ADP one phosphate is lost

Answer 2

@ramon1123 @Lena772 ATP is most definitely NOT a product of ADP. ATP is the product of the phosphorylation of ADP, so ADP + P --> ATP. This is most efficiently done by the ATP Synthase in electron transport chains.

Answer 3

the ATP/ADP pair can both be considered products depending on what point of reference you're taking.

ATP,

From a synthetic point of view it's a product: \(ADP^{3-}+PO_4^-\rightleftharpoons ATP^{4-} \)

From a hydrolytic point of view its a reactant: \(ATP^{4-}\rightleftharpoons ADP^{3-}+PO_4^- \)


(btw the chemical equations above arent complete, i left stuff out, just wanted to illustrate)

Answer 4

@aaronq I never said it couldn't be a product. I said it is not a "product of ADP" as stated by Lena772. It is a product of ADP and some P source, under the right conditions. It may seem like a semantic issue, but that is not the case.

I know I sound like a anal retentive jerk, but as a person who teaches, it is statements like this that can confused students and harm their studies. For instance, a test given in the lecture portion of our intro II bio class (I do not teach this portion) asked the number of ATP produced by glycolysis and listed several options. Here is the thing, all the options had 2 ATP, but that is not correct. Glycolysis generates 4 ATP and uses 2 ATP, resulting in a net of 2 ATP. This was not indicating in the question and student began to second guess themselves because in lecture and lab we told them 4 ATP is produced for every successful glycolysis round.