"Everything you do needs energy to drive it, whether it is running up a flight of stairs, eating breakfast, fighting off an infection, or even just producing new proteins for hair growth. The energy currency used by all cells from bacteria to man is adenosine triphosphate (ATP)." (3)Humans use a staggering amount of in day to day life. It has been estimated that around 1kg is used in the human body every hour and is rapidly recycled, this is shown by the fact that at any one time only 5g of ATP is present in the body. ATP is a vital source of energy in biology. Used in both plants and animals it is vital in actions ranging from photosynthesis to muscle contraction.(5) "The energy is used for all the processes which keep the organism alive". It is essential in all forms of life.
One of the most important uses of ATP is in Photosynthesis. It plays a role in both stages of this action, the light dependent and the light independent reaction. it is created in the dependent stage before being used in the light independent stage . It is in this stage where the energy released by it along with the reduced NADP is used to convert glycerate 3 phosphate to carbohydrate triose phosphate . This is important as the Calvin cycle is a series of reactions and without the energy released by ATP , the conversion of GP to TP would not work and the Calvin cycle could not complete. This would lead to one of the stages in photosynthesis being incomplete and photosynthesis not happening. Photosynthesis is one of the most important cycles in natural life, making ATPs role absolutely vital.
"When asked the question " what do we use energy for?" muscle contraction is often the first process which springs to mind"(1) Muscle contraction is obviously of great importance to us, we would struggle to move without it! "Adenosine Triphosphate, regularly referred to as ATP, is something you want. No need. It is the chemical compound that makes muscle contraction possible, helps regulate blood circulation and cardiac function, and provides the fuel that becomes your energy".
