Question

 Identifying the highest energy form of adenosine 

Select the highest energy form of adenosine from the following images.

Answer 1

Concepts and reason

Adenosine is a nucleoside that is made up of adenine attached to a ribose sugar molecule. Adenosine is formed in the cells through the process of metabolism in the presence of oxygen.

Fundamentals

Adenosine combines with phosphate forming molecules like ATP and ADP. These molecules help in cellular energy transfer. The molecules provide energy from the breaking of their phosphate bonds.

 

Adenosine phosphate or diphosphate cannot have the maximum energy as they do not contain a maximum number of phosphate groups.

The energy is released when a phosphate group is removed by breaking the phosphoanhydride bond. The number of high-energy bonds will increase with an increase in the number of phosphate groups. Hence, ATP with three phosphate groups is the highest-energy form of adenosine.

Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the highest-energy form of adenosine with three phosphate groups.

The highest energy form is as follows:

Two high-energy phosphoanhydride bonds attach the three phosphate groups. The energy is released when one phosphate group is removed from ATP by breaking the phosphoanhydride bond. And the ATP is converted to ADP. The free energy is transferred to other molecules for cellular reactions.