What is The ATP Cycle?

hi I'm Jeremy lecornu and you might remember me from educational biology videos such as what is aerobic respiration and what is fermentation but seriously though I have made videos on those two topics and they're all about cellular respiration they're the two different forms of cellular respiration and cellular respiration is where cells break down high-energy organic molecules like glucose to release energy that energy then fuels the ATP cycle and today's video I'm going to answer the question what is the ATP cycle how does it work and why do we need it let's get started okay well firstly what is ATP ATP is this molecule called adenosine triphosphate that's where it gets its name from a T P and it's a really important short term energy storage compound in cells it's made up of adenosine and three phosphate groups that's where it gets its name adenosine tri meaning three phosphates now the third phosphate I've drawn a squiggly line there to indicate that that is an unstable bond that bond can be broken and ATP can be converted into ADP die phosphate and an extra phosphate group when that happens energy is released now remember cells need energy to survive and they need energy for things like movement and synthesis and active transport so ATP enables cells to do those things because when it's converted into a DP the energy that's released cannot allow ourselves to do those jobs so here you can see in this diagram how that process works first of all I want you to concentrate on this bottom part here this is a teepee that we just looked at a 1 2 3 phosphates so that's our ATP molecule squiggly bond showing that it's unstable now with the addition of some water a hydrolysis reaction occurs and this phosphate is broken off that means that ATP is converted into a DP D standing for dye which means to and a spare phosphate group over here so that conversion takes place and when that conversion takes place energy is released and it's used by the cell for the things that we just looked up synthesis movement active transport all those sorts of things here's the catch cells need ATP continuously they always require ATP to break it down to ADP but if that process was a one-way process we're going to run out and that's why we need the ATP cycle we need another step where we can actually put ATP back together and add this phosphate back on and it just so happens that because breaking it down or converting the ATP to ADP released energy and was exothermic meaning energy exits the reaction adding the phosphate back on to make ATP again is an endothermic process which means it requires energy and that energy that is required to attach the phosphate back on and form ATP comes from cellular respiration aerobic respiration or ferment check those videos out if you haven't already so that forms our ATP cycle the exothermic process of breaking down ATP to ADP and P or converting it and the endothermic process where energy needs to enter the reaction which is attaching the phosphate back on to ADP and forming ATP that cycle occurs continuously and an amazing thing is the amount of ATP that actually gets recycled in this process in fact in one day the equivalent of a human body weight of ATP is recycled in your body just think about that so so let's say you're 65 kilograms in one day your body uses up 65 kilograms of ATP so let me ask you the question why are you still here why don't you vanish in that day you got it it's because you produce 65 kilograms of ATP in that same amount of time it's a continuous cycle it's always breaking it down and regenerating it over and over again so just one more way to look at it I've got these three cogs here or gears now let's label these different gears now remember if this one's moving it will drive this one and that will drive this one let's think of this first cog as cellular respiration aerobic respiration or fermentation now that starts moving and that process is occurring and the energy released from that process drives the ATP cycle so the ATP cycle is able to occur and the ATP cycle is what provides the energy for cellular processes like movement and synthesis and active transport what I want you to think about is imagine if we take away the ATP cycle that process is now not occurring cellular respiration can still be occurring as much as you like but what's going to happen to the cellular processes is anything going to be driving those no they're going to come to a standstill so without the ATP cycle cellular processes can't occur even though cellular respiration provides energy it's a chain of events that is really important and the ATP cycle fits in that really important space so guys that's been the ATP cycle I hope that I've helped you to understand what it is and why we need it in ourselves thanks very much for watching as always and I'll see you next time in all of my videos I use information and material from the biology levels of life textbook workbook and teaching notes if you want any information on how to get hold of these just leave a comment below or email me on Jeremy s lecornu at gmail.com don't forget to subscribe if you want regular updates on my new videos and as always thanks so much for your support and positive feedback I'm really glad that my videos are helping you

Channel: Jeremy LeCornu

Views: 215,774

Keywords: cellular respiration, Adenosine Triphosphate (Chemical Compound), adenosine diphosphate, Phosphate (Chemical Compound), energy, The ATP Cycle, ATP Cycle, ATP, ADP, aerobic respiration, fermentation, anaerobic respiration, cells, organisms, living things, exothermic, endothermic, biology, science, Education (TV Genre), High School (School Category), Tutorial (Media Genre), Lesson, Troy McClure (TV Character), active transport, synthesis, Organic Compound (Chemical Classification)

Id: o7fpyP2IFrQ

Length: 8min 4sec (484 seconds)

Published: Thu May 28 2015