Production, aerobic conditions A typical intracellular
concentration of ATP is 1–10 μmol per gram of muscle tissue in a variety of eukaryotes. The
dephosphorylation of ATP and rephosphorylation of ADP and AMP occur repeatedly in the course of aerobic metabolism. ATP can be produced by a number of distinct cellular processes; the three main pathways in
eukaryotes are (1)
glycolysis, (2) the
citric acid cycle/
oxidative phosphorylation, and (3)
beta-oxidation. The overall process of oxidizing
glucose to
carbon dioxide, the combination of pathways 1 and 2, known as
cellular respiration, produces about 30 equivalents of ATP from each molecule of glucose. ATP production by a non-
photosynthetic aerobic eukaryote occurs mainly in the
mitochondria, which comprise nearly 25% of the volume of a typical cell.
Glycolysis In glycolysis, glucose and glycerol are metabolized to
pyruvate. Glycolysis generates two equivalents of ATP through
substrate phosphorylation catalyzed by two enzymes,
phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK) and
pyruvate kinase. Two equivalents of
nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) are also produced, which can be oxidized via the
electron transport chain and result in the generation of additional ATP by
ATP synthase. The pyruvate generated as an end-product of glycolysis is a substrate for the
Krebs Cycle. Glycolysis is viewed as consisting of two phases with five steps each. In phase 1, "the preparatory phase", glucose is converted to 2 d-glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate (g3p). One ATP is invested in Step 1, and another ATP is invested in Step 3. Steps 1 and 3 of glycolysis are referred to as "Priming Steps". In Phase 2, two equivalents of g3p are converted to two pyruvates. In Step 7, two ATP are produced. Also, in Step 10, two further equivalents of ATP are produced. In Steps 7 and 10, ATP is generated from ADP. A net of two ATPs is formed in the glycolysis cycle. The glycolysis pathway is later associated with the Citric Acid Cycle which produces additional equivalents of ATP.
Regulation In glycolysis,
hexokinase is directly inhibited by its product, glucose-6-phosphate, and
pyruvate kinase is inhibited by ATP itself. The main control point for the glycolytic pathway is
phosphofructokinase (PFK), which is allosterically inhibited by high concentrations of ATP and activated by high concentrations of AMP. The inhibition of PFK by ATP is unusual since ATP is also a substrate in the reaction catalyzed by PFK; the active form of the enzyme is a
tetramer that exists in two conformations, only one of which binds the second substrate fructose-6-phosphate (F6P). The protein has two
binding sites for ATP – the
active site is accessible in either protein conformation, but ATP binding to the inhibitor site stabilizes the conformation that binds F6P poorly. Three ATP are produced per turn. Although oxygen consumption appears fundamental for the maintenance of the proton motive force, in the event of oxygen shortage (
hypoxia), intracellular acidosis (mediated by enhanced glycolytic rates and
ATP hydrolysis), contributes to mitochondrial membrane potential and directly drives ATP synthesis. Most of the ATP synthesized in the mitochondria will be used for cellular processes in the cytosol; thus it must be exported from its site of synthesis in the mitochondrial matrix. ATP outward movement is favored by the membrane's electrochemical potential because the cytosol has a relatively positive charge compared to the relatively negative matrix. For every ATP transported out, it costs 1 H+. Producing one ATP costs about 3 H+. Therefore, making and exporting one ATP requires 4H+. The inner membrane contains an
antiporter, the ADP/ATP translocase, which is an
integral membrane protein used to exchange newly synthesized ATP in the matrix for ADP in the intermembrane space.
Regulation The citric acid cycle is regulated mainly by the availability of key substrates, particularly the ratio of NAD+ to NADH and the concentrations of
calcium, inorganic phosphate, ATP, ADP, and AMP.
Citrate – the ion that gives its name to the cycle – is a feedback inhibitor of
citrate synthase and also inhibits PFK, providing a direct link between the regulation of the citric acid cycle and glycolysis.
Regulation In oxidative phosphorylation, the key control point is the reaction catalyzed by
cytochrome c oxidase, which is regulated by the availability of its substrate – the reduced form of
cytochrome c. The amount of reduced cytochrome c available is directly related to the amounts of other substrates: : \frac12 \ce{NADH} + \ce{cyt}\ \ce{c_{ox}} + \ce{ADP} + \ce{P_{i}} \rightleftharpoons \frac12 \ce{NAD^+} + \ce{cyt}\ \ce{c_{red}} + \ce{ATP} which directly implies this equation: : \frac{[\mathrm{cyt~c_{red}}]}{[\mathrm{cyt~c_{ox}}]} = \left(\frac{[\mathrm{NADH}]}{[\mathrm{NAD}]^{+}}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}\left(\frac{[\mathrm{ADP}] [\mathrm{P_i}]}{[\mathrm{ATP}]}\right)K_\mathrm{eq} Thus, a high ratio of [NADH] to [NAD+] or a high ratio of [ADP] [Pi] to [ATP] imply a high amount of reduced cytochrome c and a high level of cytochrome c oxidase activity.
Production, anaerobic conditions Fermentation is the metabolism of organic compounds in the absence of air. It involves
substrate-level phosphorylation in the absence of a respiratory
electron transport chain. The equation for the reaction of glucose to form
lactic acid is: :{{chem2|C6H12O6 + 2 ADP + 2 P_{i} -> 2 CH3CH(OH)COOH + 2 ATP + 2 H2O}}
Anaerobic respiration is respiration in the absence of . Prokaryotes can utilize a variety of electron acceptors. These include
nitrate,
sulfate, and carbon dioxide. In anaerobic organisms and prokaryotes, different pathways result in ATP. ATP is produced in the chloroplasts of green plants in a process similar to oxidative phosphorylation, called photophosphorylation. Some of the ATP produced in the chloroplasts is consumed in the
Calvin cycle, which produces
triose sugars.
ATP recycling The total quantity of ATP in the human body is about 0.1
mol/L. The majority of ATP is recycled from ADP by the aforementioned processes. Thus, at any given time, the total amount of ATP + ADP remains fairly constant. The energy used by human cells in an adult requires the hydrolysis of 100 to 150 mol/L of ATP daily, which means a human will typically use their body weight worth of ATP over the course of the day. Each equivalent of ATP is recycled 1000–1500 times during a single day (), at approximately 9×1020 molecules/s. of a
decarboxylase enzyme from the bacterium
Staphylococcus epidermidis () with a bound
flavin mononucleotide cofactor ==Biochemical functions==