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Name: Sandy
Status: Other
Grade:  Other
Location: IL
Country: United States
Date: November 2007

How does the body make ATP energy from the oxygen?

Does the body generate ATP from oxygen? No, but all aerobic organisms absolutely require oxygen for converting the chemical energy found in food into a useful form. A cell in an organism uses adenosine as the base for adding phosphate groups during coupled catabolic reactions. For example, phosphate groups are added to adenosine when breaking down a sugar in order to store the bond energy of the sugar in a mono-, di-, or triphosphated adenosine, i.e., AMP, ADP, or ATP. The adenosine base is used repeatedly to store energy, as when AMP is used to generate ADP, and when ADP is used to generate ATP via a cycle that adds phosphate groups. The tri-phosphated adenosine is then dephosphorylated in oupled anabolic reactions by which a cell generates macromolecules that are encoded in the cell's DNA. It is the catabolic reactions that require the oxygen to proceed. For example, look up the chemistry that relates to the breakdown of the simple sugar glucose. As you will find, the catabolic reaction will convert the glucose to carbon dioxide, water, and energy. The energy is largely captured in the coupled reaction that converts ADP to ATP.

D. Silvert

Electrons from glucose are passed along the electron transport chain. As the electrons are passed along, the energy inherent in the electrons is released and used to synthesize ATP from ADP + P. The final receptor of these electron is Oxygen which combines with Hydrogen ions (H+) to form water.

Ron Baker, Ph.D.

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