ATP is considered one of the most important chemical enery source in living cells. All living organisms require a continuous supply of energy. In order for energy to be used it has to be transformed into a form that every organism can use. ATP is the carrier of energy. In the words of Jerry Bergman, Ph.D., "It is only one of millions of enormously intricate nanomachines that needs to have been designed in order for life to exist on earth"
ATP is basically constructed with carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and phosphate atoms. A combination of those atoms create three different components: A sugar molecule (ribose), a base (adenine), and a string of phosphate groups. The phosphate groups are key in the activity of ATP.
Energy is produced from the ATP molecule when the endmost phosphate group is lost. This lost can be cause by something such as an enzyme. When this reaction (the lost of an phosphate group) takes place energy is released. The product of this reaction is Adenosine Diphosphate (ADP). The phosphate group can either produce orthophosphate or attaches to another molecule. Yet after the phosphate group and energy is release the ADP molecule "recycles" itself in the mitochondria where it recharges and produces ATP again. It is an on-going cycle.
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